Gobiodon okinawae Sawada, Arai & Abe, 1972

Gobiodon okinawae Sawada, Arai & Abe, 1972 View in CoL : Yellow or Okinawae Coralgoby

Synonyms or described as: No recorded synonyms.

Description: Gobiodon okinawae , or the Yellow or Okinawae Coralgoby , is one of the more easily recognised members of the genus, due to a distinctive uniform bright yellow colouration with a pale pink area on the cheek ( Figure 21 View FIGURE 21 ).

Distribution: Gobiodon okinawae is distributed throughout the western Pacific, notably the Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea and Ryuku Islands in Japan ( Munday, Harold and Winterbottom, 1999), as well as the northern reefs of Western Australia (Larson, 2019, GBIF.Org, 2024). There has been a number of recordings throughout the central and western Indian Ocean but in significantly lower frequency than the Pacific Ocean (GBIF.Org, 2024).

Habitat: This species has been recorded in a number of different host Acropora , but displays a preferences for those located in lagoonal or sheltered areas ( Munday, Harold and Winterbottom, 1999).

Status: The conservation status of this species is of ‘Least Concern’ on the IUCN Red List ( Larson, 2019f).

Sociality: Gobiodon okinawae is commonly observed in pairs but also found in large groups occasionally (mean group size: 1.74, SI: 0.41–0.46) ( Hing et al., 2018; Hing, 2019; Froehlich et al., 2024).

Genetics: Gobiodon okinawae is consistently located in a clade alongside G. acicularis , G. ceramensis and G. citrinus ( Harold et al., 2008; Duchene et al., 2013; Herler, Bogorodsky and Suzuki, 2013; Hing et al., 2019). Gobiodon okinawae has no distinct sister species within this clade, being the second to diverge after G. citrinus in some studies, and first to diverge from the central clade species in other studies depending on the genetic markers used ( Harold et al., 2008; Duchene et al., 2013; Herler, Bogorodsky and Suzuki, 2013; Hing et al., 2019).

Notes: Gobiodon okinawae spends a large amount of time among the outer branches of their host coral, making them one of the most identified and photographed members of the genus alongside G. citrinus .