Platax teira

Platax teira (Forsskål in Niebuhr 1775) —Blunthead batfish, longfin batfish Status at New Ireland. New record, based on specimens observed at Kavieng fish market by Barry C. Russell on 21 June 2014. Specimens photographed at Lissenung Island by Dietmar Amon on 26 Aug. 2008; others photographed at St. KVG22 (northeast of Lemus Island, Kavieng District) by Serge Andréfouët on 21 Aug. 2014; a video of a specimen taken off Nubilus Island, off southeastern New Hanover, at 3–32 m depth, St. KR 88, in 2014 (identified by Barry C. Russell). Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 1, 2.—General distribution: Red Sea, East and South Africa; Madagascar and western Mascarenes east to Northern Marianas, Solomon and Loyalty islands, north to southern Japan and Ogasawara Islands, south to northern Australia, Norfolk Island and northern New Zealand. Adults are found in sheltered bays as well as deep offshore, associated with coral reefs; juveniles with floating debris and form aggregations, 0–20 m depth. Transitional water and marine.
Published as part of 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, pp. 1-360 in Zootaxa 4588 (1) on page 296, DOI: 10.11646/zootaxa.4588.1.1, http://zenodo.org/record/2988163