Dischistodus, Gill, 1863

Tang, Kevin L., Stiassny, Melanie L. J., Mayden, Richard L. & DeSalle, Robert, 2021, Systematics of Damselfishes, Ichthyology & Herpetology 109 (1), pp. 258-318 : 293

Dischistodus .

— Seven large (some species approach or exceed 150 mm SL; Allen, 1975a, 1991), herbivorous species that exhibit algal gardening behavior ( Potts, 1977; Meekan et al., 1995; Sin et al., 1995; Frédérich et al., 2013: table S1; Hata and Ceccarelli, 2016) constitute this monophyletic group. They usually occur in shallow lagoons (, 10 m) and on inshore reefs of the Indo-Australian Archipelago, often over sand or silt substrates (Allen, 1975a, 1991). Their overall similarities have led to a consistent and widely accepted generic composition since Allen (1975a) removed these species from Pomacentrus and recognized Dischistodus as a separate genus. Our results confirm this by finding strong support (100% bootstrap) for the monophyly of the five species that were sampled. The species of Dischistodus are arranged in a comb-like topology with D. melanotus sister to the remaining species in a sequential stepwise array: D. pseudochrysopoecilus , D. chrysopoecilus , D. perspicillatus , and D. prosopotaenia . These relationships are congruent with those reported in some earlier studies ( Rabosky et al., 2013, 2018; Mirande, 2016). However, our phylogeny differs from others in the placement of D. melanotus , where it was nested further within Dischistodus therein (Cowman and Bellwood, 2011; Litsios et al., 2012a, 2012b; Frédérich et al., 2013; DiBattista et al., 2016; Delrieu-Trottin et al., 2019).