At last, we’ve reached the thrilling conclusion to this comprehensive review of Fairy Wrasse evolution, and it’s time to once more dwell upon the topic of the group’s origins. As we’ve previously discussed, this enormously diverse genus can be comfortably categorized into a pair of major lineages that serve to organize these fishes into more comprehensible portions.
There are species with short pelvic fins, and there are species with longer pelvic fins. Corresponding with this difference are numerous other similarities regarding their respective color patterns, particularly when it comes to the reflective caudal fin of the long-finned group. Female coloration can likewise be informative, as this tends to be a conserved feature within and across the various species groups. But what all of these species have shared up until now is a fairly standard morphology.
By and large, the morphological counts of things like fin spines and rays, lateral line scales and gill rakers are homogenous across the entire genus. Certain individual groups are recognizable due to some minor alteration of their proportions (e.g. the pointy head seen in the拉伯基or丝状groups), but the overall morphology is still much the same. There is, however, still one more species remaining which we have yet to cover, and it differs from its relatives in somewhat more meaningful ways.
cirrhilabrus labouteiis a fairy wrasseSui Generis。It was first made known in a 1976 guide to the fishes of New Caledonia authored in part by Pierre Laboute, who included a photograph and a short sentence mentioning its size (15cm… though it’s actually closer to 12cm), habitat depth (15-30m), and the observation that it hovers several meters above the bottom along with an unidentified fairy basslet.
Mr. Laboute, who went on to author a number of guides to the New Caledonian fauna, shared information of his find with Dr. John Randall, which led to its official scientific description in 1982. Pierre, for his efforts, is now immortalized with one of the more resplendent wrasses in the sea—Laboute’s Fairy Wrasse.
尽管仍然具有与其他童话扭曲的基本相同的形态计数，但这种鱼类独有的两个特征可将其与同类物区分开来。第一个与肛门鳍的异常细长的刺有关，这似乎是整个家庭中其他任何地方都找不到的。这些仅在大型男性中发展，并且在婚礼展示期间竖立并分开。这些手指状的刺是否具有任何触觉功能，还是仅仅是女性的视觉刺激物是完全未知的。
同样特质是圆形骨盆鳍，在该属中又没有真正的平行。但是，紧密相关的闪光灯wrasses（Paracheilinus）共享此鳍形。其他相关群体 -Pseudocheilinus，，，，Pseudocheilinops，，，，Pteragogus- 同样圆形的骨盆鳍，对大多数童话扭曲中的细长鳍的贷款支持是一个派生的特征。这可以作为进一步的证据C. Laboutei可能属于一个早期的血统,而在the acquisition of this trait.
Other characteristics also stand out as unusual. Take, for instance, the great similarity between the coloration of juveniles and females relative to mature males (other species typically show a fairly drastic change during development). We do still see some of the same juvenile landmarks found elsewhere in the genus, namely the three prominent lines running along the length of the body.
This is not so different from the juveniles of theLunatus，，，，jordaniorrubriventralisgroups, but laboutei is noteworthy in that these juvenile lines don’t ever fade away with age as we would expect. The upper two are kept into adulthood and serve to border a stripe extending posteriorly from the eye, while the lowermost line remains associated with the posterior lateral line scales.
If we compare the arrangement ofLaboutei我们对其亲戚的构图，我们看到了来自各种不同谱系的各种特征。前面提到的眼条是多元化的常见特征jordanigroup, while the short dashes present near the pectoral fin base appear again in the distantly relatedC. exquisitusandC. Johnsoni。尾鳍，用一系列同心线和点进行了细腻的图案，与temminckiiorrubriventralisgroups, but, importantly,Laboutei’s fin never has any indication of a reflective sheen to it.
Mature males develop a characteristic black band dorsally along the head, which we can only find vague similarities to in things like拉伯基，，，，jordaniandrubrimarginatus。Again, the narrative here is that of a feature which is common to many distantly related groups and whichLabouteihas put its own idiosyncratic twist on.
婚礼模式的记录很差，并且在许多方面都未知。某些标本显示背鳍和肛门鳍的变黑，以及体内颜色的强化，但这些可能仅代表物种内的个体变异。大小和生物地理学似乎与男性着色的这些差异无关，因为澳大利亚和瓦努阿图的男性大小都显示出一系列表型变化。
The most plausible inference that can be made is that the kind of shimmer in the stripes or caudal fin that is otherwise so prevalent in fairy wrasses is mostly or entirely lacking inLaboutei。这可能表明又一个祖先的特征？水族基金会可以通过记录圈养标本的显示来促进我们对该物种的理解中发挥重要作用！
Since its initial discovery,C. Labouteihas turned up in other nearby regions of the Southwest Pacific, including Vanuatu, the Loyalty Islands, the Chesterfield Islands, Elisabeth Reef, and as far north as Cairns along the Great Barrier Reef and as far south as the Solitary Islands in New South Wales. This is a virtually identical biogeography toC. Bathyphilus，但是，与那条鱼不同，似乎没有发现东方的姊妹物种。较差的C. Labouteiis all alone in this world—the onlyCirrhilabrusin such phylogenetic isolation.
Aquarium specimens are liable to come from any number of locales: Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Australia. Specimens collected near Cairns, Australia are said to range from 10-40 meters, with most found in the 10-20 meter range. The fish collectors and exporters in this region do a far better job than what we generally see from their Indonesian and Philippines counterparts, and so specimens ofLaboutei通常以尖端形状到达目的地。对于如此强大的尺寸Cirrhilabrus，该物种在w弱的一面，并且比引起任何问题本身更有可能受到热闹的坦克伴侣的伤害。皮埃尔·拉伯特（Pierre Laboute）的弗劳斯（Wrasse）是一个情人，而不是战斗机，尽管皮埃尔·拉伯特（Pierre Laboute）本人是否也是我不能说的类似性格。
When we began this journey into bettering our knowledge ofCirrhilabrusevolution, we presented a pair of competing hypotheses regarding the basalmost member of the genus—what one might colloquially refer to as the most “primitive” living species. “Primitive” is a bit of a loaded term here, a pejorative which unnecessarily implies a less-evolved state of affairs. In the case ofCirrhilabrus，，，，it has become increasingly obvious through the course of this study thatC. Laboutei有特殊的共享,祖先的水资源teristics and unique features which mark it as different from the rest. But even though, as we suggest, it occupies its own isolated lineage with respect to its congeners, remember that all fairy wrasses share the same common ancestor at some point in their past.cirrhilabrus laboutei从属的演变中，很可能属于遗物谱系，但是从某种意义上说，所有其他物种也是如此。这是相对多元化和物种形成，标记这两个基础进化枝是不同的。也许是数千万年前的Labouteiclade which dominated the oceans?
As a final point concerning fairy wrasse evolution, we present here the most comprehensive molecular study done to date on the genus. This isn’t saying much, though, as there has yet to be any real effort by the scientific community to reviewCirrhilabrus许多分子工具使用。何w this state of affairs has been allowed to go on for so long is beyond me, but hopefully this nascent attempt will spur further inquiry. This tree is based on publicly available mitochondrial CO1 data, and, for the most part, it conforms to what we had previously arrived at from morphological and biogeographical study alone. There are minor discrepancies with the arrangement of some of the long-finned groups in the CO1 tree, but there is too little data to draw any meaningful conclusions. What is most urgently needed is the inclusion ofC. Labouteiinto this dataset, to hopefully corroborate its placement basally in the genus.
因此，我们终于到达了这次航行的尽头Cirrhilabrus，，，，perhaps with just as many questions now as when we first started. What should be clear is just how imperfect and incomplete our knowledge truly is—how many taxonomic inconsistencies plague this genus. There are many species yet to be named, and there may yet be more awaiting discovery in the briny depths of some obscure corner of the ocean. It will undoubtedly be a great long while before enough morphological and molecular research is published to confirm or refute what we’ve put forth in this long-winded review, and we certainly do not envy whomever attempts to at last elucidate the true diversity hiding within taxonomic nightmares likeC. temminckiiand优势。
附录
Several articles have been updated with new information:
新照片的Cirrhilabrus lanceolatus加入。
New photos ofCirrhilabrus clairewere added.
新照片的Cirrhilabrus bathyphilus加入。
Full nuptial coloration ofCirrhilabrus bathyphilus记录和更新。
Terminal male phase ofCirrhilabrus cf. solorensis记录和更新。
New photos ofCirrhilabrus cyanopleuraXC. CF.Solorensis添加了杂种。
New photos ofCirrhilabrus exquisitusfrom Africa were added.
新照片的C. CF.优势从苏门答腊添加了。
Cirrhilabrus rubrimarginatus更新到新喀里多尼亚的范围扩展。
New video displaying caudal scintilla inCirrhilabrus Katoi加入。
Acknowledgments
A tip of the hat to my indefatigable co-author, Lemon, who took it upon himself to pen most of this series. Several others have been instrumental along the way: Hiroyuki Tanaka, Gerry Allen, Rudie Kuiter, Kevin Kohen, Eli Fleishauer, Vincent Chalais, Brian Greene and the Japanese divers who have documented these fishesin situ。
