Spottedtail morwong
The spottedtail morwong is a species of marine ray-finned fish, traditionally regarded as belonging to the family Cheilodactylidae, the members of which are commonly known as morwongs. It is found in the northwest Pacific Ocean.
Taxonomy
The spottedtail morwong was first formally described in 1830 by the French zoologist Georges Cuvier as a new name for Labrus japonicus of Tilesius, Cuvier referred to “Les Cheilodactyls” rather the referring to the genus Cheilodactylus. When Theodore Nicholas Gill described the subgenus Goniistius he designated Cheilodactylus zonatus as its type species. The specific name zonatus means “banded”, a reference to the banded pattern on this fish's body.Genetic and morphological analyses have strongly suggested that the genus Cheilodactylus was paraphyletic and that only two species, C. fasciatus and C. pixi, both from Southern Africa could be included in a monophyletic genus Cheilodactylus. Further, these analyses also found that other than these two species the rest of the taxa traditionally classified in the family are actually closer to the Latridae and should be classified in that family.