FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL. 72. NO. 4 



Table 57. — Food of Coris gaimard. 



Rank 



Items 



Mollusks 



Echinoids 



Crabs 



Didemnid tunlcates 



Gammaridean amphipods 



Also, crustacean fragments 



Table 58. — Food of Macropharyngodon geoffroy. 



Rank 



Items 



No. fish 



with this 



item (n = 8) 



Mean percent 



of 

 diet volume 



Ranking 

 index 



sand, exposing hidden prey. It is not seen at night, 

 when presumably it is buried in the sand, or se- 

 creted in reef crevices. 



All nine specimens (117: 81-164 mm), speared 

 during daylight, contained relatively fresh mate- 

 rial, but items longer than a few millimeters were 

 crushed so extensively that precise identifications 

 were difficult. The gut contents are itemized in 

 Table 57. 



CONCLUSION. — Coris gaimard is a diurnal 

 predator that mostly excavates mollusks and 

 other prey that are buried in the sand. 



Macropharyngodon geoffroy 

 (Quoy and Gaimard) 



This solitary little wrasse is widespread on 

 Kona reefs, but is nowhere numerous. It swims 

 close among coral and rocks during daylight, but 

 is not seen after dark, when presumably it secretes 

 itself in reef crevices, or under the sand. 



All eight specimens (99: 74-120 mm) collected 

 during the day had the gut full of the items listed 

 in Table 58, almost all crushed. 



The exceptionally large pharyngeal teeth of this 

 wrasse obviously are adapted to a diet of heavily 

 shelled organisms. The specimens examined, 

 which had fed mostly on gastropods and forami- 

 niferans, are undoubtedly representative. The 

 foraminiferans were almost all Marginospora 

 vertebralis, which is an abundant benthic form on 

 shallow reefs in the Marshall Islands (Cushman, 

 Todd, and Post, 1954). 



CONCLUSION.^MacropAaryn^ocfon geoffroy 

 is a diurnal predator that feeds mostly on benthic 

 gastropods and foraminiferans. 



Gomphosus varius Lacepede — 

 bird wrasse, hinalea IHwi 



This wrasse is numerous on shallow surge- 

 swept reefs, especially where the coral Pocillopora 

 meandrina abounds. During daylight solitary in- 

 dividuals swim among the coral heads, probing 

 with their elongated snouts among the coral 

 branches. At night the species lies quietly in reef 

 crevices. 



All 12 specimens (142: 114-180 mm) collected 

 during the day had their guts full of the items 

 listed in Table 59. Most of this material was 

 crushed. The xanthid crabs were mostly Trapezia 

 sp. They and the alpheids are species that live 

 among the branches of P. meandrina. Hiatt and 

 Strasburg (1960) noted that this labrid's major 

 prey in the Marshall Islands are xanthids and 

 alpheids that live in the interstices of ramose cor- 

 als. Randall (1955) similarly reported alpheid 

 shrimps and also stomatopods in the diet of this 

 species (as G. tricolor) in the Gilbert Islands. 



Gomphosus varius takes relatively large motile 

 prey, and with its large mouth does not pluck them 

 from the substratum in the manner characteristic 

 of the many other wrasses that prey on relatively 

 tiny or sessile organisms. Rather, this wrasse vig- 

 orously wrests its prey from the reef crevices in 

 which they are secreted. 



994 



