Sparisoma

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 2010 and S. choati described from the East Atlantic in 2012. 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

Species	Common name	Initial phase	Terminal phase
Sparisoma amplum (Ranzani, 1842)	Reef parrotfish	File:Sparisoma amplum, Arraial do Cabo, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil imported from iNaturalist photo 110777468 (cropped).jpg	File:Sparisoma amplum, Buraco do Inferno, Brasil imported from iNaturalist photo 166319558 (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma atomarium (Poey, 1861)	Greenblotch parrotfish
Sparisoma aurofrenatum (Valenciennes, 1840)	Redband parrotfish	File:Sparisoma aurofrenatum, 571 North West Point Road Grand Cayman KY1, West Bay 1301, Cayman Islands imported from iNaturalist photo 467376738 (cropped).jpg	File:Sparisoma aurofrenatum, Beach Place, Fort Lauderdale, FL, US imported from iNaturalist photo 324027007 (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma axillare (Steindachner, 1878)	Gray parrotfish	File:Sparisoma axillare, Guarapari, BR-ES, BR imported from iNaturalist photo 386084228 (cropped).jpg	File:Figure 2. Brazilian endemic parrotfishes now under inverted management (Sparisoma axillare).jpg
Sparisoma choati Rocha, Brito & D. R. Robertson, 2012	West-African parrotfish		File:Sparisoma choati (cropped).png
Sparisoma chrysopterum (Bloch & Schneider, 1801)	Redtail parrotfish	File:Sparisoma chrysopterum, Aruba, Oranjestad, Aruba, AW imported from iNaturalist photo 258758751 (cropped).jpg	File:Sparisoma chrysopterum - pone.0010676.g135.png
Sparisoma cretense (Linnaeus, 1758)	Mediterranean parrotfish	File:Sparisoma cretense 2 (cropped).jpg	File:Vieja colorada (Sparisoma cretense), franja marina Teno-Rasca, Tenerife, España, 2022-01-05, DD 81 (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma frondosum (Agassiz, 1831)	Agassiz's parrotfish	File:Sparisoma frondosum 107515511 (cropped).jpg	File:Figure 2. Brazilian endemic parrotfishes now under inverted management (Sparisoma frondosum rotated).jpg
Sparisoma griseorubrum Cervigón, 1982	Caribbean reef parrotfish
Sparisoma radians (Valenciennes, 1840)	Bucktooth parrotfish	File:Sparisoma radians 137466466.jpg
Sparisoma rocha Pinheiro, Gasparini & Sazima, 2010	Rocha's parrotfish		File:Sparisoma rocha (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma rubripinne (Valenciennes, 1840)	Redfin parrotfish	File:Sparisoma rubripinne 320187554 (cropped).jpg	File:Yellowtail parrotfish Sparisoma rubripinne (2443201744) (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma strigatum (Günther, 1862)	Strigate parrotfish
Sparisoma tuiupiranga Gasparini, Joyeux & Floeter, 2003	Brazilian red parrotfish	File:Sparisoma tuiupiranga, Arraial do Cabo, RJ, 28930-000, Brasil imported from iNaturalist photo 107515535 (cropped).jpg	File:Sparisoma tuiupiranga, Arraial do Cabo, RJ, 28930-000, Brasil imported from iNaturalist photo 107515582 (cropped).jpg
Sparisoma viride (Bonnaterre, 1788)	Stoplight parrotfish	File:Sparisoma viride, 9HCM Q27, N W Point Rd, West Bay, Cayman Islands imported from iNaturalist photo 469419199 (cropped).jpg	File:Stoplight-parrotfish (cropped).jpg

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.