:Painted moki

The painted moki was first formally described as Cheilodactylus ephippium in 1916 by the Australian ichthyologists Allan Riverstone McCulloch and Edgar Ravenswood Waite with the type locality given as Norfolk Island.{{Cof genus | genus = Morwong | access-date = 1 August 2021}} The specific name epphipium means "saddle", an allusion which McCulloch and Waite did not explain but may be a reference to the bar behind the head.{{cite web | url = https://etyfish.org/centrarchiformes/ | title =Order Centrarchiformes: Families Centrarchidae, Elassomatidae, Eoplosidae, Sinipercidae, Aplodactylidae, Cheilodactylidae, Chironemidae, Cirrhitidae, Latridae, Percichthydiae, Dichistitidae, Girellidae, Kuhliidae, Kyphosidae, Oplegnathidae, Terapontidae, Microcanthidae, and Scorpididae | work = The ETYFish Project Fish Name Etymology Database | editor1= Christopher Scharpf | editor2 = Kenneth J. Lazara | name-list-style = amp |date = 25 February 2021 | access-date = 1 August 2021 | publisher = Christopher Scharpf and Kenneth J. Lazara}}

The true taxonomic relationships of the taxa traditionally classified under the family Cheilodactylidae have been considered uncertain and to have been poorly supported by some authorities over a long period of time.{{cite book | editor1 = Carpenter, K.E. | editor2 = Niem, V.H. | name-list-style = and | title = FAO species identification guide for fishery purposes. The living marine resources of the Western Central Pacific. Volume 5. Bony fishes part 3 (Menidae to Pomacentridae) | publisher = FAO Rome | year = 2001 | chapter = CHEILODACTYLIDAE | author = J.E. Randall | page = 3329 | url = http://www.fao.org/3/y0770e/y0770e54.pdf}} Genetic and morphological analyses now strongly suggest that the traditional classification of Cheilodactylus is incorrect and that the inclusion of the species other than the two southern African species in Cheilodactylus, C. fasciatus and C. pixi, make the genus Cheilodactylus sensu lato paraphyletic and that all the other “morwongs” were closer to the Latridae.{{cite journal | author1 = Ludt, W.B. | author2 = Burridge, C.P. | author3 = Chakrabarty, P. | name-list-style = amp | year = 2019 | title = A taxonomic revision of Cheilodactylidae and Latridae (Centrarchiformes: Cirrhitoidei) using morphological and genomic characters | journal = Zootaxa | volume = 585 | issue = 1 | pages = zootaxa.4585.1.7 | doi = 10.11646/zootaxa.4585.1.7| pmid = 31716185 | s2cid = 145985739 }} In these analyses the painted moki was found to be the sister species of the red morwong (C. (M.) fuscus) and so was placed within the clade Morwong.{{cite journal | author1 = C. P. Burridge | author2 = R.W.G. White | name-list-style = and | year = 2000 | title = Molecular phylogeny of the antitropical subgenus Goniistius (Perciformes: Cheilodactylidae: Cheilodactylus): evidence for multiple transequatorial divergences and non-monophyly | journal = Biological Journal of the Linnean Society | volume = 70 | issue = 3 | pages = 435–458 | doi = 10.1006/bijl.1999.0413| bibcode = 2000BJLS...70..435B | url = https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/22839575 }}{{cite journal | author1 = Christopher P. Burridge | author2 = Adam J. Smolenski | name-list-style = and | year = 2004 | title = Molecular phylogeny of the Cheilodactylidae and Latridae (Perciformes: Cirrhitoidea) with notes on taxonomy and biogeography | journal = Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution | volume =30 | issue = 1 | pages = 118–127 | doi = 10.1016/S1055-7903(03)00157-X| pmid = 15022763 }}

The painted moki reaches a maximum length of {{cvt|55|cm}}.{{cite web | url = https://reeflifesurvey.com/species/cheilodactylus-ephippium/ | title = Cheilodactylus ephippium | access-date = 1 August 2021 | publisher = Reef Life Survey}} The colour of this fish is basically reddish-brown to brown with irregular spotting. There is a wide light coloured oblique bar running from the nape to behind the base of the pectoral fin and joining with the pale underside. There is another shorter bar from underneath the spiny part of the dorsal fin to immediately below the centre of the body. A series of light coloured spots or a wide pale stripe run along the back from the base of the soft rayed part of the dorsal-fin.{{cite web | url = https://fishesofaustralia.net.au/home/species/2415#summary | author = Bray, D.J. | year = 2021 | title = Morwong ephippium | work = Fishes of Australia | access-date = 1 August 2021 | publisher = Museums Victoria}}

The painted moki is found in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. Off New South Wales it is found from Broughton Island south to Montague Island. In the Tasman Sea it is found at Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island and in New Zealand it is found off the Kermadec Islands. This species is found at depths down to {{cvt|60|m}}{{cite web | url = https://australian.museum/learn/animals/fishes/painted-morwong-cheilodactylus-ephippium/ | author = Mark McGrouther | date = 8 April 2021 | access-date = 1 August 2021 | publisher = Australian Museum |title = Cheilodactylus ephippium McCulloch & Waite, 1916}} on inshore rocky and coral reefs.{{cite web | url = http://www.saltcorner.com/AquariumLibrary/browsespecies.php?CritterID=850&filter=0 | title = Goniistius ephippium | access-date = 1 August 2021 | publisher = Bob Goemans| work = Saltcorner}} This species feeds on benthic invertebrates which it filters out of the sediment.

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painted moki

Category:Fish of the North Island

Category:Fish of Lord Howe Island

Category:Fauna of Norfolk Island

Category:Fish of the Kermadec Islands

painted moki