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Sparisoma
Sparisoma is a genus of parrotfishes native to warmer parts of the Atlantic. FishBase recognizes 15 species in this genus, including S. rocha described from Trindade Island in 2010 and S. choati described from the East Atlantic in 2012. 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.
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.
15 branches of this genus, most-observed first · about 15 known species
Stoplight Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma viride
European Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma cretense
Redband Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma aurofrenatum
Yellowtail Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma rubripinne
Redtail Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma chrysopterum
Bucktooth Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma radians
Greenblotch Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma atomarium
Redeye Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma axillare
Agassiz's Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma frondosum
West-African Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma choati
Reef Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma amplum
Tuiupiranga Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma tuiupiranga
Strigate Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma strigatum
Trindade parrotfish
speciesSparisoma rocha
Venezuelan Parrotfish
speciesSparisoma griseorubrum
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
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geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Sparisoma in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
This page is assembled live from iNaturalist, GBIF, Wikipedia, the Source Library and the Internet Archive. It is not yet part of the hand-edited codex. iNaturalist taxon 49931.