Sparisoma

Sparisoma is a genus of parrotfishes native to warmer parts of the Atlantic. FishBase recognizes 15 species in this genus,^[3] including S. rocha described from Trindade Island in 2010^[4] and S. choati described from the East Atlantic in 2012.^[5] They are the most important grazers of algae in the Caribbean Sea, especially since sea urchins, especially Diadema, the other prominent consumers of algae, have been reduced in many places by a recent epidemic.^{[citation needed]}

Sparisoma
Male S. viride
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Actinopterygii
Order:	Labriformes
Family:	Labridae
Tribe:	Scarini
Genus:	Sparisoma Swainson, 1839
Type species
Scarus abildgaardi Bloch, 1791[1]
Species
See text.
Synonyms[2]
Callyodontichthys Bleeker, 1861 Euscarus Jordan & Evermann, 1896

The name was proposed by William Swainson as a subgenus of Scarus. Sparus in Latin is a golden-headed fish, and soma means "body". The common spelling Sparisomus is incorrect.^{[citation needed]}

Taxonomy

William Swainson described the genus Sparisoma in 1839 and he designated Sparus abildgaardi as its type species,^[1] Although the specific name abildgaardi would appear to have precedence over chrysopterum, the latter is the more widely used name and the former was long mistakenly thought to be synonymous with Sparisoma viride.^[6] The name Sparus abildgaardi was suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature and Scarus chrysopterus was recognised as the type species.^[7]

Biology

The size of parrotfishes of this genus ranges from the rather small-sized S. radians with a known maximum length of 20 cm (7.9 in) to the large S. viride, which reaches lengths of up to 64 cm (25 in).^{[citation needed]}

Members of this genus are sequential hermaphrodites, starting as females (known as the initial phase) and then changing to males (the terminal phase). However, some males are direct-developing, and these usually resemble the initial phase. These direct-developing terminal-phase males often display different mating strategies. In most species, the terminal phase is more colourful than the initial, but a notable exception to this rule is S. cretense. They use their pectoral fins to move; the caudal fin is reserved for rapid bursts of speed.^{[citation needed]}

The genus Sparisoma is fairly successful, but populations have been falling somewhat because of overfishing and other human activities. However, as mentioned above, it is the main grazer of algae. Still, since populations have been falling, the coral reefs may be at risk, because too much algae is deleterious or harmful to coral.^{[citation needed]}

Species

Species	Common name	Initial phase	Terminal phase
Sparisoma amplum (Ranzani, 1842)	Reef parrotfish
Sparisoma atomarium (Poey, 1861)	Greenblotch parrotfish
Sparisoma aurofrenatum (Valenciennes, 1840)	Redband parrotfish
Sparisoma axillare (Steindachner, 1878)	Gray parrotfish
Sparisoma choati Rocha, Brito & D. R. Robertson, 2012	West-African parrotfish
Sparisoma chrysopterum (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)	Redtail parrotfish
Sparisoma cretense (Linnaeus, 1758)	Mediterranean parrotfish
Sparisoma frondosum (Agassiz, 1831)	Agassiz's parrotfish
Sparisoma griseorubrum Cervigón, 1982	Caribbean reef parrotfish
Sparisoma radians (Valenciennes, 1840)	Bucktooth parrotfish
Sparisoma rocha Pinheiro, Gasparini & Sazima, 2010	Rocha's parrotfish
Sparisoma rubripinne (Valenciennes, 1840)	Redfin parrotfish
Sparisoma strigatum (Günther, 1862)	Strigate parrotfish
Sparisoma tuiupiranga Gasparini, Joyeux & Floeter, 2003	Brazilian red parrotfish
Sparisoma viride (Bonnaterre, 1788)	Stoplight parrotfish

An alleged fossil otolith of Sparisoma from the Lutetian of France would represent the oldest record of this genus, and of parrotfishes in general. However, more recent studies no longer assign the fossil to this genus.^[8]