Blackburn's butterflyfish

Lore & Background

The brownburnie was first formally described in 1836 by the French naturalist Julien Desjardins, with the type locality given as Mauritius. Its specific name honors English jurist Edward Berens Blackburn, who served as Chief Justice of Mauritius from 1824 to 1835 and was president of the Société d'Histoire Naturelle de l'Ile Maurice. The body is mainly brownish black, with the head and front part bright yellow and a black vertical bar across the eye. The dark color extends onto the dorsal and anal fins, while the pelvic fins are bright yellow. The dorsal fin contains 16 spines and 21-23 soft rays; the anal fin has 3 spines and 17-18 soft rays. It attains a maximum total length of 13 centimeters.

Reader's Guide

The brownburnie is rarely seen in the aquarium trade because of its comparatively drab coloration. In the wild, it inhabits shallow rocky reefs and calm bays with limited coral growth, found either solitarily or in pairs. It is an omnivorous species that feeds on benthic invertebrates such as bivalves, soft coral polyps, crustaceans, and worms, as well as zooplankton. It is oviparous, with males and females mating as pairs. Its distribution in the western Indian Ocean extends along the East African coast from Kenya to the Mbhashe River in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa, and it has also been recorded from the French Southern and Antarctic Lands in the Mozambique Channel islands, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rodrigues, and Réunion.

Did You Know?

• The brownburnie is also known as Blackburn's butterflyfish or the rayed butterflyfish.
• Its specific name honors Edward Berens Blackburn, Chief Justice of Mauritius from 1824 to 1835.
• It was first formally described in 1836 by French naturalist Julien Desjardins.
• The species is rarely seen in the aquarium trade due to its drab coloration.