The labrid fish Julis blochii Valenciennes, a junior synonym of Thalassoma pavo (Linneaus)

Abstract

Julis blochii Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes (1839), allegedly from the East Indies, a new name for Labrus lunare (non Linnaeus) Bloch (1791), was suspected as a senior synonym of Thalassoma jansenii (Bleeker, 1856). Instead it is a junior synonym of Thalassoma pavo (Linnaeus), a common and widespread eastern Atlantic species, the result of locality error. Two other Atlantic species, T. sanctaehelenae (Valenciennes, 1839) and T. ascensionis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1834), sometimes considered synonymous, are demonstrably distinct.