Norfolkia brachylepis Schultz 1960

Norfolkia brachylepis (Schultz, 1960)

Fig. 8 I; table 1

Tripterygion brachylepis Schultz in Schultz et al., 1960: 291 (type locality Bikini Atoll, Marshall Islands). Norfolkia springeri Clark, 1980: 95 (Aqaba, Red Sea).

Norfolkia brachylepis: Holleman, 1991: 233; Fricke, 1994: 465; 1997: 504; Golani & Bogorodsky, 2010: 45.

Diagnosis. Dorsal fins IV + XIV–XV + 10–11, usually IV + XV + 11; anal fin II, 20–21, usually 21, the spines less than half the length of the rays; pectoral fin 16, upper 2–3 and lower 7 rays simple, remainder divided once; pelvicfin rays united by membrane for less than one-quarter of length of shorter ray. LL 21–24 (usually 22) pored scales ending below junction of second and third dorsal fins, and 14–19 (usually 16) notched scales; total lateral scales 32–35, usually 34. Dentary pores 5–6 + 1 + 5–6. Orbital and nasal cirri large palmate, at least equal to pupil diameter; cirri at tips of first dorsal-fin spines. Head 2.9–3.6 (3.3) in SL, eye 3.0–3.9 (3.3), maxilla 2.3–3.0 (2.6) and snout 3.3–4.9 (3.8) in head length.

Fresh colour. (from photograph of Rick Winterbottom of specimen from Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa). No sexual dichromatism present other than that males may be more darkly coloured than females. Body pale yellow, scales outlined in yellow-ochre, with 5–6 dark brown blotches between dorsum and midline; head brownish-yellow with darker brown bar below eye and pale area behind, iris yellow; first dorsal fin brown and yellow, second translucent with patches of light red and brown, third dorsal fin with irregular bars of brown-red and cream; caudal fin with irregular brown and white barring, anal fin with yellow and black-brown bars, pelvic fins pale yellow and pectoral fins with irregular brown and yellow bars.

Colour underwater (from photograph of G.R. Allen of fresh specimen from Indonesia): body grayish with golden-brown and gray-white blotches between dorsum and midline, blotched extending onto second and third dorsal fins; head grey with brown bar below eye, followed by cream bar and light brown preopercle, eye rim alternating brown and grey; first dorsal fin ‘dirty’ white, darker distally, second dorsal fin with white and red-brown marks, the white extending as bands across the fin; third dorsal fin the same; caudal fin with alternating, irregular white and brown bands; anal fin distinctly banded black and cream; pectoral fins irregularly banded with white.

Colour in preservative. Body pale gray with five, irregular dark bars along dorsum, which fade towards LL; head gray with a tapering dark bar below the eye and another from the posterior margin of the orbit curving down onto the preopercle. First dorsal fin distally dark gray, second and third dorsal fins with clusters of melanophores basally, continuations of body bars, and which extend as irregular areas of spots across fin to margin; caudal fin with several, narrow dark gray bars; anal fin with faint, diagonal bands of melanophores. Mature males are much darker, with body and median fins dark gray and without any suggestion of bars.

Key features. Scaled head, palmate orbital and nasal cirri, four spines in the first dorsal fin and distinctive yellow and black barred anal fin.

Distribution. This is an apparently wide-spread species, currently known from the Red Sea, to South Africa, from Sri Lanka, the east and west coast of Australia, Indonesia, southern Japan and east to the Marshall Islands, New Caledonia and Fiji.

Remarks. Holleman (1991) revised the genus, recognising three species, N. brachylepis, with its very wide distribution, N. squamiceps (southern Great Barrier Reef) and N. thomasi, from the Great Barrier Reef and southern Pacific to Rapa Island. Photographs by J. E. Randall of specimens from Japan and Indonesia do not show the yellow and black anal fin. The colour described above is of a specimen from southern Madagascar. As the species was recorded by Randall (1995) from the Gulf of Oman it is assumed here that the colour of the Madagascar specimen is the same as for individuals from the Red Sea.