There’s a new leopard wrasse on the books and it’s calledMacropharyngodon pakoko. The new leopard wrasse species was described from specimens collected in theMarquesas Islands, a region of the South Pacific Ocean which is well known for it’s localized endemism.
Macropharyngodon pakoko与普通的豹子非常相似M. meleagris这在印度太平洋但轻微的着色差异中很普遍有助于辨别该物种。这两种物种的雄性都有整体绿色的外观，但是虽然普通的豹子折断了一个黑色的小耳朵，带有黄色的口音，但在pakoko豹子中，这个地方较大，并且完全呈现为Irridescent blue。另一个区别是脸颊上存在不规则的U形标记，其斑点之间的白色更为白色。
For those who attended the recent MACNA Keynote presentation by Luiz Rocha, the description of a new wrasse species from Marquesas is quite timely. During his presentation Dr. Rocha discussed some theories as to why there was a high rate of speciation in the Marquesas and one possible explanation is the higher nutrient environment making the water more greenish, and the appearance of a particular eye pigment that helps enhance vision in this kind of water for the local endemic surgeonfish,Acanthurus reversus.[Biotaxa]
