A Review of the Labrid Fish Genus Labroides, 
with Descriptions of Two New Species and Notes on Ecology 1 
John E. Randall 
An Indo- Pacific genus of small labrid fishes 
(wrasses), Labroides Bleeker, is here restricted 
to four species, two of which are described as 
new from islands of the tropical central Pa- 
cific. Underwater observations of all of the 
species have revealed the unusual food habit 
of removal of ectoparasites from other fishes. 
This is discussed for each species in the ac- 
counts following taxonomic considerations. 
Gunther (1862: 120) and Fowler (1949: 
117) considered Diproctacanthus xanthurus 
Bleeker in the genus Labroides. I am in 
agreement with de Beaufort (1940: 19, 151, 
fig. 26) that the monotypic Diproctacanthus 
Bleeker is a valid genus. D. xanthurus lacks 
the characteristic bilobed lower lip of La- 
broides and has two instead of three anal spines. 
Smith (1957: 100, 104) established a new 
genus, Fowlerella , for Labroides bicolor , princi- 
pally on the basis of fewer lateral line scales 
than dimidiatus. In view of the similarity of 
bicolor to dimidiatus in other respects than 
number of scales, I refer Fowlerella to the 
synonymy of Labroides 
Smith included Labrus quadrilineatus Riip- 
pell (1835: 6, pk 2, fig. 1) from the Red Sea 
with dimidiatus in the genus Labroides even 
though its scale counts would seem to ally 
it with bicolor. Actually quadrilineatus prob- 
ably does not belong in Labroides , for this 
species has a completely scaled head (whereas 
in Labroides the head is naked except for sub- 
orbital, postorbital, and opercular regions), 
a slightly emarginate caudal fin, eight instead 
1 Contribution No. 209 from the Marine Labora- 
tory, University of Miami, Miami, Florida. Manuscript 
received October 16, 1956. 
of nine dorsal spines, and in Ruppell’s mod- 
erately detailed description there is no men- 
tion of a bilobed condition of the lower lip. 
Fowler (1928: 331) (after Schmeltz) also 
placed quadrilineatus in Labroides and listed it 
from Samoa. I am dubious of this record. 
Possibly Schmeltz obtained the young of 
Labrichthys cyanotaenia Bleeker which have 
two lengthwise pale bands on the body (al- 
though these are lower on the body of cyano- 
taenia than they are on quadrilineatus and the 
more ventral band is not as distinct). La- 
brichthys unilineata (Guichenot) from Guam 
is probably a synonym of Labrichthys cyano- 
taenia, , based on this juvenile color pattern. 
Saville-Kent (1893: 308, col pi. 16, figs. 4, 
9) described two species of Labroides , L. 
bicincta and L. auropinna , after seeing them in 
coral pools of Lady Elliot Island reef in the 
Great Barrier Reef of Australia. He obtained 
no specimens, but preferred to "provision- 
ally” give the fishes new names. Although 
the color drawings on which these names are 
based are crude, it seems very likely that the 
blue and black L. bicincta is a juvenile L. 
dimidiatus. Saville-Kent mentioned its "re- 
semblance to the white and black banded L. 
dimidiatus , C. and V.” Obviously he was not 
aware that the true life color of L. dimidiatus 
is blue and black. The figure of L. auropinna , 
a blue fish with yellow fins, fits no known 
species of Labroides. Until a more complete 
description with necessary meristic, measure- 
ment, and detailed descriptive data on the 
species is available, I prefer not to recognize 
this name. It is possible that L. auropinna is 
not a species of Labroides , and perhaps not 
even a labrid. 
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