Fourspot butterflyfish
The four-spotted butterflyfish or fourspot butterflyfish is a species of butterflyfish found in the Pacific Ocean from the Ryukyus, Ogasawara Islands and Taiwan to the Hawaiian, Marquesan, and Pitcairn islands, south to the Samoan and Austral Islands and the Marianas and Marshall Islands in Micronesia.
The fourspot butterflyfish is a marine coralivorous organism. Therefore, its noted geographic distribution, as well as population-level spatial distribution and temporal variation in density, is correlated to relative distributions and abundance of the corals that butterflyfish are dependent on for food.
It is a quite distinct species, but most closely related to the speckled butterflyfish. Together they are basal in the subgenus Exornator, and might be intermediate between the core group of this subgenus and the species of the Rhombochaetodon lineage. If that is correct, the latter would require to be merged into Exornator. If the genus Chaetodon is split up, Exornator might become a subgenus of Lepidochaetodon.
Butterflyfish as a family are a common marine aquarium specimen as a result of their varying colors and patterns, and contribute to 4% of the global fish trade.
Taxonomy
As one of 90 extant species in the genus Chaetodon, the fourspot butterflyfish shares the following characteristics: a laterally compressed body with bilateral symmetry, and ctenoid scales, identified by their comb-like edges. One defining characteristic of this species is its four rounded, eye-shaped spots, two on each lateral surface. These spots are theorized to help this butterflyfish avoid predation by either intimidating predators or diverting attack of predators to potentially less fatal regions of the body.Diet and feeding
C. quadrimaculatus is an obligate, hard coral feeder, an adaptation that is theorized to have evolved approximately 3.2 million years ago. This species is highly dependent on scleractinian corals, an order of Anthozoa where approximately 50% of species are reef-building zooxanthellate. Butterflyfish typically feed from corals by removing individual polyps while leaving the calcareous skeleton undisturbed. They use a picking method where they grip prey with the tips of their upper and lower anterior jaws. Due to their specialized dependence on corals, C. quadrimaculatus and other obligate corallivorous species have an increased bite rate, pointing to a higher feeding efficiency, than butterflyfish that are facultative corallivores.Social structure
Owing to their obligate dependence on corals, fourspot butterflyfish tend to be distributed in stable feeding territories with high fidelity for each site and male-dominated defense mechanisms. The social structure is dominated by heterosexual, adult pair-bonds, while juveniles are typically solitary. However, there have also been observations of homosexual pair bonds and pair bonds between sexually immature butterflyfish in this genus.Therefore, the evolution of pair bonds may offer benefits beyond increasing reproductive fitness. Other proposed advantages of pair-bonding include increased foraging efficiency and vigilance against predators. Within heterosexual pair-bonds, evidence supports the evolution of sex-specific roles rather than mutual territory defense. In this division of labor, males actively defend territory allowing females to successfully forage and therefore increase their fecundity.