Cheilininae
| Cheilininae | |
|---|---|
| Tripletail wrasse (Cheilinus trilobatus) | |
| Humphead wrasse (Crassilabrus undulatus) | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Actinopterygii |
| Order: | Labriformes |
| Family: | Labridae |
| Subfamily: | Cheilininae Bleeker, 1862 |
| Genera | |
|
See text | |
The cheiline wrasses or flasherwrasses are saltwater fish of the subfamily Cheilininae, a subgroup of the wrasse family (Labridae).[1] They are distributed throughout the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as the Red Sea.[2]
Biology
Cheiline wrasses largely exhibit monandric protogyny. In such cases, this means all individuals are born functionally female, but mature females can change sex and become functionally male. However, some species also exhibit diandric protogyny and functional gonochorism. In diandric protogyny, individuals can be born either female or male, and individuals that are born female can become male. In functional gonochorism, individuals are born functionally either male or female, and remain so for their entire life; there is no sex change.[3]
Taxonomy
This group was formerly classified as a tribe, but is now better treated as a subfamily.[1][4] Phylogenetic studies regularly find that the wrasses of the subfamily Cheilininae are most closely related to parrotfish (subfamily Scarinae); cheilines and scarines are sister groups.[2][5]
The relationship of the genus Doratonotus with Cheilininae is uncertain. Initially, based on morphological analyses by Westneat (1993), Cheilininae was considered to be composed of two subgroups, i.e., the "cheiline" wrasses and the "pseudocheiline" wrasses. At the time, the adjective "cheilinin" was used to describe fish in the subfamily Cheilininae. Doratonotus was considered to be the basalmost "cheiline" genus. However, Westneat & Alfaro (2005) showed that "pseudocheilines" and "cheilines" were not each other's closest relatives. As Doratonotus was not included in study, its placement relative to Cheilinini is uncertain.[2][6] Later studies have recovered it in the Pseudolabrinae, where it is now placed.[7] The pseudocheiline wrasses eventually formed the subfamily Cirrhilabrinae, originally proposed as a tribe in 1999, but are still sometimes informally referred to as pseudocheilines despite this.[8][9]
Although the 4 genera recognized in Cheilininae do form a monophyletic clade with each other, their relationship with each other was somewhat problematic as the genus Cheilinus appears to be paraphyletic.[2] This was resolved in a 2025 study which validated the genera Crassilabrus and Concholabrus;[10] this paper's treatment is accepted by the World Register of Marine Species but not Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes.[11][12]
The following cladogram is based on the aforementioned 2025 study:[10]
| Cheilininae |
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Genera
Based on Eschmeyer's Catalog of Fishes:[12]
| Genus | Image |
|---|---|
| Cheilinus | |
| Epibulus | |
| Oxycheilinus | |
| Wetmorella |
W. albofasciata |
References
- ^ a b Fricke, R.; Eschmeyer, W. N.; Van der Laan, R. (2025). "ESCHMEYER'S CATALOG OF FISHES: CLASSIFICATION". California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 2025-02-10.
- ^ a b c d Westneat, Mark W.; Alfaro, Michael E. (August 2005). "Phylogenetic relationships and evolutionary history of the reef fish family Labridae". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 36 (2): 370–390. Bibcode:2005MolPE..36..370W. doi:10.1016/j.ympev.2005.02.001. PMID 15955516.
- ^ Lowe, Jake R.; Russ, Garry R.; Bucol, Abner A.; Abesamis, Rene A.; Choat, John H. (October 2021). "Geographic variability in the gonadal development and sexual ontogeny of Hemigymnus , Cheilinus and Oxycheilinus wrasses among Indo-Pacific coral reefs". Journal of Fish Biology. 99 (4): 1348–1363. Bibcode:2021JFBio..99.1348L. doi:10.1111/jfb.14842. ISSN 0022-1112. PMID 34228351.
- ^ Brownstein, Chase D.; Harrington, Richard C.; Alencar, Laura R. V.; Bellwood, David R.; Choat, John H.; Rocha, Luiz A.; Wainwright, Peter C.; Tavera, Jose; Burress, Edward D.; Muñoz, Martha M.; Cowman, Peter F.; Near, Thomas J. (2025-05-07). "Phylogenomics establishes an Early Miocene reconstruction of reef vertebrate diversity". Science Advances. 11 (19) eadu6149. Bibcode:2025SciA...11.6149B. doi:10.1126/sciadv.adu6149. PMC 12057688. PMID 40333985.
- ^ Viviani, Jérémie; LeBlanc, Aaron; Rurua, Vahine; Mou, Teiva; Liao, Vetea; Lecchini, David; Galzin, René; Viriot, Laurent (2022). "Plicidentine in the oral fangs of parrotfish (Scarinae, Labriformes)". Journal of Anatomy. 241 (3): 601–615. doi:10.1111/joa.13673. ISSN 1469-7580. PMC 9358764. PMID 35506616.
- ^ Westneat, Mark W (1993-01-01). "Phylogenetic Relationships of the Tribe Cheilinini (Labridae: Perciformes)". Bulletin of Marine Science. 52 (1): 351–394.
- ^ Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Pseudolabrinae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 August 2025.
- ^ Tea, Yi-Kai; Allen, Gerald R.; Goatley, Christopher H. R.; Gill, Anthony C.; Frable, Benjamin W. (2021-11-05). "Redescription of Conniella apterygia Allen and its reassignment in the genus Cirrhilabrus Temminck and Schlegel (Teleostei: Labridae), with comments on cirrhilabrin pelvic morphology". Zootaxa. 5061 (3): 493–509. doi:10.11646/zootaxa.5061.3.5. ISSN 1175-5334. PMID 34810612.
- ^ Hughes, Lily C; Nash, Chloe M; White, William T; Westneat, Mark W (2023-05-01). "Concordance and Discordance in the Phylogenomics of the Wrasses and Parrotfishes (Teleostei: Labridae)". Systematic Biology. 72 (3): 530–543. doi:10.1093/sysbio/syac072. ISSN 1063-5157. PMID 36331534.
- ^ a b Thomas J. Near; Chase D. Brownstein; Christine E. Thacker; Peter C. Wainwright (16 October 2025). "Phylogenetic Taxonomy of Wrasses and Parrotfishes (Labridae)". Bulletin of the Peabody Museum of Natural History. 66 (2): 263–338. doi:10.3374/014.066.0201.
- ^ Bailly N (ed.). "Cheilininae Bleeker, 1862". FishBase. World Register of Marine Species. Retrieved 2026-02-27.
- ^ a b Fricke, Ron; Eschmeyer, William N. & van der Laan, Richard (eds.). "Genera in the family Cheilininae". Catalog of Fishes. California Academy of Sciences. Retrieved 24 August 2025.