Mulloidichthys

Mulloidichthys
Mulloidichthys flavolineatus
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Syngnathiformes
Family:	Mullidae
Genus:	Mulloidichthys Whitley, 1929
Type species
Mullus flavolineatus Lacépède, 1801
Synonyms
MulloidesBleeker, 1849 PseudomulloidesMiranda-Ribeiro, 1915

Mulloidichthys is a genus of ray-finned fish in the family Mullidae native to coral and rocky reefs of the tropical Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean. ^{[1] [2]}

Mimicry

Several species of Mulloidichthys mimic the appearance of other fish species. M. mimicus mimics and schools with the snapper Lutjanus kasmira , ^[3] while M. martinicus mimics and schools with grunts in the genus Haemulon . ^[4]

• 
  M. mimicus with Lutjanus kasmira
• 
  M. vanicolensis with Lutjanus biguttatus
• 
  M. martinicus with Haemulon flavolineatum .
• 
  M. dentatus with Lutjanus viridis and Lutjanus argentiventris

Species

There are currently 7 recognized species in this genus:

Species		Common name	Image
Mulloidichthys ayliffe Uiblein, 2011		Indian mimic goatfish [5]
Mulloidichthys dentatus (T. N. Gill, 1862)		Mexican goatfish
Mulloidichthys flavolineatus (Lacépède, 1801)	M. f. flavicaudus Fernández-Silva & J. E. Randall, 2016 [6]	Yellow-tail goatfish [6]
	M. f. flavolineatus (Lacépède, 1801)	Yellow-stripe goatfish
Mulloidichthys martinicus (G. Cuvier, 1829)		Yellow goatfish
Mulloidichthys mimicus J. E. Randall & Guézé, 1980		Mimic goatfish
Mulloidichthys pfluegeri (Steindachner, 1900)		Orange goatfish
Mulloidichthys vanicolensis (Valenciennes, 1831)		Yellow-fin goatfish

References

1. Froese, Rainer; Pauly, Daniel (eds.). "Species in genus Mulloidichthys". FishBase . January 2016 version.
2. Lieske, E. & Myers, R. (2002). Coral Reef Fishes: Caribbean, Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean Including the Red Sea . HarperCollins Publishers. pp.  400. ISBN   9780691089959.
3. John E Randall; Paul Gueze (1980). The goatfish Mulloidichthys mimicus n. sp. (Pisces, Mullidae) from Oceania, a mimic of the snapper Lutjanus kasmira (Pisces, Lutjanidae).
4. Krajewski, João Paulo; Bonaldo, Roberta Martini; Sazima, Cristina; Sazima, Ivan (2004). "The association of the goatfish mulloidichthys martinicus with the grunt haemulon chrysargyreum: an example of protective mimicry". Biota Neotropica. 4 (2): 1–4. doi:10.1590/S1676-06032004000200016. ISSN   1676-0611.
5. Uiblein, Franz (2011). "Taxonomic review of Western Indian Ocean goatfishes of the genus Mulloidichthys (Family Mullidae), with description of a new species and remarks on colour and body form variation in Indo-West Pacific species". Smithiana Bulletin. 13: 51–73.
6. Fernandez-Silva, Iria; Randall, John E.; Golani, Daniel; Bogorodsky, Sergey V. (2016). "Mulloidichthys flavolineatus flavicaudus Fernandez-Silva & Randall (Perciformes, Mullidae), a new subspecies of goatfish from the Red Sea and Arabian Sea". ZooKeys (605): 131–157. doi: 10.3897/zookeys.605.8060 . PMC   4978075 . PMID   27551217.