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 2010Pinheiro, H. T., J. L. Gasparini & I. Sazima (2010). Sparisoma rocha, a new species of parrotfish (Actinopterygii: Labridae) from Trindade Island, South-western Atlantic. Zootaxa 2493: 59–65. and S. choati described from the East Atlantic in 2012.Rocha, Brito, and Robertson (2012). Sparisoma choati, a new species of Parrotfish (Labirdae: Scarinae) from the tropical eastern Atlantic. Zootaxa, 3152: 61-67. 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.
Taxonomy William Swainson described the genus Sparisoma in 1839 and he designated Sparus abildgaardi as its type species, 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. The name Sparus abildgaardi was suppressed by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature and Scarus chrysopterus was recognised as the type species.
Biology The size of parrotfishes of this genus ranges from the rather small-sized S. radians with a known maximum length of to the large S. viride, which reaches lengths of up to .
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.
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.
Species +SpeciesCommon nameInitial phaseTerminal phaseSparisoma amplum (Ranzani, 1842)Reef parrotfishSparisoma atomarium (Poey, 1861)Greenblotch parrotfishSparisoma aurofrenatum (Valenciennes, 1840)Redband parrotfishSparisoma axillare (Steindachner, 1878)Gray parrotfishSparisoma choati Rocha, Brito & D. R. Robertson, 2012West-African parrotfishSparisoma chrysopterum (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)Redtail parrotfishSparisoma cretense (Linnaeus, 1758)Mediterranean parrotfishSparisoma frondosum (Agassiz, 1831)Agassiz's parrotfishSparisoma griseorubrum Cervigón, 1982Caribbean reef parrotfishSparisoma radians (Valenciennes, 1840)Bucktooth parrotfishSparisoma rocha Pinheiro, Gasparini & Sazima, 2010Rocha's parrotfishSparisoma rubripinne (Valenciennes, 1840)Redfin parrotfishSparisoma strigatum (Günther, 1862)Strigate parrotfishSparisoma tuiupiranga Gasparini, Joyeux & Floeter, 2003Brazilian red parrotfishSparisoma 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.
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