Cirrhilabrus africanus和C. rubeusare the two newest species of fairy wrasses that have been added to this quickly growing genus of reef fish. Descriptions of fairy wrasse species have been fairly frequent the last couple years, but today we gettwo一篇论文中的物种。
The new Ruby Longfin fairy wrasse,Cirrhilabrus rubeus, and the African Longfin fairy wrasse, are part of the spike-fin fairy wrasse complex. PreviouslyCirrhilabrus rubriventraliswas the name for the various spike-fin wrasses spanning the majority of the Indian Ocean, but this species is now limited in distribution to the Red Sea.
Cirrhilabrus rubeusis the species found in the oceanic environments of Sri Lanka and Maldives. The Ruby Longfin fairy wrasse looks very similar to theCirrhilabrus rubriventralis我们已经习惯了，但外观在几种方面有所不同。
First and perhaps most noticeably, the dorsal fin ofCirrhilabrus rubeus通常，与大多数其他物种相比，通常有两条尖峰五射线。另外，C. rubriventralishas nearly solid red ventral and anal fins,C. rubeushas a degree of black coloration on the pelvic and anal fins with red edges.
Meanwhile,Cirrhilabrus africanusranges along most of the African Coast from Kenya down to South Africa. This is one fairy wrasse which the aquarium hobby has long recognized as being distinct from many others for a long time.
Long referred to as the Kwazulu Fairy wrasse orCirrhilabrussp. 3,Cirrhilabrus africanushas been documented even in books for nearly two decades. The yellow coloration in the anterior portion of female specimens and ventral portion of males specimens is unmistakable to exotic fish fanciers.
The two newest species of fairy wrasses from the Indian Ocean are in the same species complex as two other recently described fairy wrasse species,Cirrhilabrus humanni和Cirrhilabrus hygroxerus. Today’s additions to the sprawling genus of fairy wrasses are described by Benjamin Victor in 23rd volume of the海洋科学基金会杂志.
