bluehead
Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791)
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.
Blue-headed wrasse, San Pedro, Belize Barrier Reef
Tibor Marcinek · Public domain · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 320 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Thalassoma bifasciatum, the bluehead, bluehead wrasse or blue-headed wrasse, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a wrasse from the family Labridae. It is native to the coral reefs of the tropical waters of the western Atlantic Ocean. Individuals are small (less than 110 mm standard length) and rarely live longer than two years. They form large schools over the reef and are important cleaner fish in the reefs they inhabit.
Wikipedia contributors, Thalassoma bifasciatum; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T02:31:42.015907+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Thalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791)
- Name authority
- (Bloch, 1791)
- Common name
- bluehead
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Family
- Labridae
- Genus
- Thalassoma
- 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
- familyLabridae Cuvier, 1816
- subfamilyJulidinae Bonaparte, 1841
- genusThalassoma Swainson, 1839
- speciesThalassoma bifasciatum (Bloch, 1791)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Thalassoma. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| bluntheaded wrasseThalassoma amblycephalum (Bleeker, 1856) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma ascensionis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1834) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma genivittatum (Valenciennes, 1839) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| sunset wrasseThalassoma grammaticum Gilbert, 1890 | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma hardwicke (Bennett, 1830) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| goldbar wrasseThalassoma hebraicum (Lacepède, 1801) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma heiseri Randall & Edwards, 1984 | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma jansenii (Bleeker, 1856) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Cortez rainbow wrasseThalassoma lucasanum (Gill, 1862) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma lutescens (Lay & Bennett, 1839) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma noronhanum (Boulenger, 1890) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Thalassoma pavo (Linnaeus, 1758) | LabridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Labrus bifasciatus Bloch, 1791 Bloch, 1791 | synonym |
| Julis nitida Günther, 1862 Günther, 1862 | synonym |
| Thalassoma bisfaciatum (Bloch, 1791) (Bloch, 1791) | synonym |
| Thalassoma nitida (Günther, 1862) (Günther, 1862) | synonym |
| Chlorichthys bifasciatus Jordan & Evermann, 1896 Jordan & Evermann, 1896 | 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=159786 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:55ZMQ. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.