Redspotted hawkfish

Lore & Background

The redspotted hawkfish was first formally described as Pseudocirrhites pinos in 1927 by Bermudan naturalist Louis L. Mowbray, with the type locality given as Point Francis on the Isle of Pines in Cuba. In 1829, French zoologist Georges Cuvier described a species he called Cirrhites fasciatus, giving it a type locality of Puducherry in India, but this is now considered an error, as the fish most likely came from the Atlantic Ocean. When Theodore Nicholas Gill described the genus Amblycirrhitus in 1861, he used Cuvier's C. fasciatus as its type species; however, Cuvier's name was preoccupied by Edward Turner Bennett's 1828 usage for a related species, making A. pinos the type species under Cuvier's invalid name. Mowbray's specific name pinos refers to the Isle of Pines.

The redspotted hawkfish has an oval, moderately compressed body with a short, sharp snout and a fringe of cirri on the posterior margin of the anterior nostril. It has a moderately large mouth with small canine-like teeth on the outside of the jaws and a band of simple teeth inside. The dorsal fin is continuous with a small incision between the spiny and soft-rayed parts, and each spine has a tuft of cirri at its tip. The caudal fin is truncate, and the lower pectoral fin rays are robust and notably longer than the others. The fish attains a maximum standard length of 9.5 cm. Its overall whitish background color features several brownish vertical bands, a dark brown caudal peduncle, and numerous red spots on the head and adjacent body.

The species is benthic, normally resting on the marine substrate and using its pectoral fins to secure itself against the current. It often takes sanctuary in the lumen of tube sponges. It hunts by sight, ambushing prey from a station, and mainly eats small crustaceans such as copepods, shrimps, shrimp larvae, crabs, and crab larvae, as well as polychaetes. It is a pelagic spawner, but little is known about its reproduction.

Reader's Guide

The redspotted hawkfish is a species of marine ray-finned fish in the family Cirrhitidae, found at depths from 2 to 46 m on tropical reefs in the Western Atlantic. Its taxonomy involves a historical dispute: the species was first formally described in 1927 by Louis L. Mowbray as Pseudocirrhites pinos, but an earlier 1829 description by Georges Cuvier (Cirrhites fasciatus) was based on an erroneous type locality in India, and Cuvier's name was later found to be preoccupied by Edward Turner Bennett's 1828 name. This taxonomic confusion means that A. pinos serves as the type species of the genus Amblycirrhitus under Cuvier's invalid name. The species is common in rocky areas and rubble, and frequently occupies crevices and small caves. Its distribution includes Bermuda, the Bahamas, the Florida Keys, Cedar Key off Florida, the Flower Garden Banks in the Gulf of Mexico, the northern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, northwestern Cuba, the Caribbean including Isla de Aves, and the South American coast as far as Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, as well as Trindade Island. The redspotted hawkfish is collected for the aquarium trade, which is its primary human use. Its biology includes benthic resting behavior, ambush predation on small crustaceans and polychaetes, and pelagic spawning, though reproduction is poorly known.

Did You Know?

• The dorsal fin has 10 spines and 11 soft rays, with each spine bearing a tuft of cirri at its tip.
• It uses its pectoral fins to secure itself against the current and often takes sanctuary in tube sponges.