Roa (fish) explained

Roa is a genus of butterflyfishes native to the Indian and Pacific oceans. The six species are widely distributed: R. australis near Australia, R. excelsa near Hawaii and nearby islands, R. jayakari near India, R. modesta near Japan and China, R. rumsfeldi in the Philippines,^[1] and R. haraguchiae near Japan and the Philippines.^[2]

Species

There are currently eight recognized species in this genus:^{[3] [4]}

• Roa australis Kuiter, 2004 (Triple-banded butterflyfish)
• Roa excelsa (D. S. Jordan, 1921) (Hawaiian gold-barred butterflyfish)
• Roa haraguchiae (Uejo, Senou & Motomura, 2020) (Haraguchi's butterflyfish)
• Roa jayakari (Norman, 1939) (Indian golden-barred butterflyfish)
• Roa modesta (Temminck & Schlegel, 1844) (Japanese golden-barred butterflyfish)
• Roa rumsfeldi (Rocha, Pinheiro, Wandell, Rocha & Shepherd, 2017) (Deep-blackfin butterflyfish)
• Roa semilunaris (Matsunuma & Motomura 2022) (Semilunar-spot butterflyfish)
• Roa uejoi (Matsunuma & Motomura 2022) (Uejo's butterflyfish)

Notes and References

1. Rocha . Luiz A. . Pinheiro . Hudson T. . Wandell . Matt . Rocha . Claudia R. . Shepherd . Bart . October 18, 2017 . Roa rumsfeldi, a new butterflyfish (Teleostei, Chaetodontidae) from mesophotic coral ecosystems of the Philippines . ZooKeys . 709 . 127–134 . 10.3897/zookeys.709.20404 . 29118639 . October 19, 2017. 5674171 . free . 2017ZooK..709..127R .
2. Roa haraguchiae, a new species of butterflyfish (Teleostei: Perciformes: Chaetodontidae) from Japan and the Philippines . Uejo, T., Senou, H. & Motomura, H. . 2020 . Ichthyological Research . 67 . 3 . 408–415 . 10.1007/s10228-020-00735-9 . 2020IchtR..67..408U . 211088538 . June 4, 2020.
3. N. Bailly . 2014 . Roa Jordan, 1923 . 297702 . June 4, 2020 . FishBase .
4. Matsunuma . Mizuki . Motomura . Hiroyuki . March 2022 . Two new species of the butterflyfish genus Roa (Perciformes: Chaetodontidae) . Journal of Fish Biology . 100 . 3 . 758–774 . 10.1111/jfb.14993 . 1095-8649 . 35038164. 2022JFBio.100..758M . 246019195 .