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Balistes polylepis and Xanthichthys caeruleolineatus, Two Large Triggerfishes (Tetraodontiformes: Balistidae) from the Hawaiian Islands, with a Key to Hawaiian Species1
JOHN E. RANDALL2 AND BRUCE C. MUNDY3
ABSTRACT: The large triggerfish Balistes polylepis Steindachner, the most common species of the family in the eastern Pacific, was previously reported from Hawai'i as Pseudobalistes fuscus (Bloch & Schneider) or questionably as B. polylepis; the identification as B. polylepis is here confirmed. Because of its rare occurrence in Hawai'i, it was believed to be a waif; however, an underwater photograph of one guarding a nest indicates that spawning has occurred in Hawai'i. A second large balistid, Xanthichthys caeruleolineatus Randall, Matsuura & Zama, wide ranging from the western Indian Ocean to Cocos Island, Costa Rica, is recorded from the Hawaiian Islands, where it is known from 46 to 165 m. A key is presented to the 11 Hawaiian species of the Balistidae. An enigmatic specimen of Canthidermis reportedly collected in Hawaiian waters is also discussed.
JoRDAN AND EVERMANN (1905) recorded 11 species of the triggerfish family Balistidae from the Hawaiian Islands. None of the species they listed is recorded by the same binomial name today, although four of the specific names are correct.
Jordan and Jordan (1922) listed the same 11 balistid species from the Hawaiian Islands, but they shifted five of them from the genus Balistes to the genus Sufflamen. They illus- trated one of two species of Canthidermis, C. angulosus (Quoy & Gaimard), as plate 4, fig. 3, clearly an adult of C. maculatus (Bloch).
Fowler (1928) reported Hawaiian localities for 11 balistid fishes. He identified specimens of two species of Canthidermis as C. maculatus (Bloch) and C rotundatus (Proce). He regarded earlier Hawaiian records of Balistes aureolus (non Richardson) as Canthidermis rotundatus, but listed B. aureolus Richardson as a junior synonym of B. ringens Linnaeus, later identified as a species of Xanthichthys by Berry and Baldwin (1966). He referred B. fuscolineatus Seale to the synonymy of Melichthys buniva (Lacepede), itself a synonym of M. niger (Bloch) (Randall and Klausewitz 1973). Fowler included B. fuscus Bloch & Schneider in the Hawaiian fauna. However, as discussed below, his Hawaiian specimens are B. polylepis Steindachner. The true B. fuscus is a wide-ranging Indo-Pacific species now placed...