NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD

barberfish

Johnrandallia nigrirostris (Gill, 1862)

Source-backed taxonomic record

Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.

Johnrandallia nigrirostris

Shot at Machete dive site in the Coiba National Park, Panama. — Johnrandallia nigrirostris Shot at Machete dive site in the Coiba National Park, Panama.
LASZLO ILYES from Cleveland, Ohio, USA · CC BY 2.0 · Image source
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Open encyclopedia reference

The blacknosed butterflyfish or barberfish (Johnrandallia nigrirostris) (from the Spanish names, El Barbero or Mariposa Barbero, "the barber" or "butterfly barber"), is a species of fish in the family Chaetodontidae, the butterfly fishes. It is found in the East Pacific, specifically around the Galápagos Islands and in the Sea of Cortez, and it sometimes acts as a cleaner fish. It is the only member of the genus Johnrandallia, named after the ichthyologist John E. Randall, but in the past it was commonly placed in Chaetodon.

Wikipedia contributors, Johnrandallia; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:37:25.872979+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name: Johnrandallia nigrirostris (Gill, 1862)
Name authority: (Gill, 1862)
Common name: barberfish
Rank: species
Accepted status: accepted
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Teleostei
Order: Acanthuriformes
Family: Chaetodontidae
Genus: Johnrandallia
Extinction status: Not supplied by this source

Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
kingdomAnimalia
phylumChordata
subphylumVertebrata
infraphylumGnathostomata
parvphylumOsteichthyes
gigaclassActinopterygii
superclassActinopteri
classTeleostei
orderAcanthuriformes
familyChaetodontidae Rafinesque, 1815
genusJohnrandallia Nalbant, 1974
speciesJohnrandallia nigrirostris (Gill, 1862)

Close classified relatives

No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.

Browse 78 records assigned to Chaetodontidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Recorded name	Source status
Heniochus nigrirostris (Gill, 1862) (Gill, 1862)	synonym
Johnrandalia nigrirostris (Gill, 1862) (Gill, 1862)	synonym
Pseudochaetodon nigrirostris (Gill, 1862) (Gill, 1862)	synonym
Chaethodon nigrirostris (Gill, 1862) (Gill, 1862)	synonym
Sarothrodus nigrirostris Gill, 1862 Gill, 1862	synonym
Chaetodon nigrirostris (Gill, 1862) (Gill, 1862)	synonym

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=281202 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:3QQ7Y. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.