Paracanthurus hepatus (Linnaeus 1766)

Andréfouët, Serge, Chen, Wei-Jen, Kinch, Jeff, Mana, Ralph, Russell, Barry C., Tully, Dean & White, William T., 2019, Checklist of the marine and estuarine fishes of New Ireland Province, Papua New Guinea, western Pacific Ocean, with 810 new records, Zootaxa 4588 (1), pp. 1-360 : 305

Paracanthurus hepatus (Linnaeus 1766) —Palette tang

Status at New Ireland. New record, based on specimens observed in Kavieng Lagoon by Jeff Kinch during ACIAR Aquarium Survey in 2013 (see Teitelbaum et al. 2013: 15); a video of a specimen taken in Senta Pass , east of New Hanover at 5–12 m depth, St. KR 114, in 2014 (identified by Barry C. Russell).

Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 1, 2.—General distribution: East and South Africa, Madagascar and western Mascarenes east to Marshall and Line islands, north to southern Japan and Ogasawara Islands, south to southern Great Barrier Reef ( Australia), New Caledonia and Samoa. Found in clear, current-swept terraces of seaward reefs; observed in loose aggregations 1–2 m above the bottom; juveniles and subadults typically in groups near isolated Pocillopora coral heads, 2–40 m depth. Marine.