Gobiodon oculolineatus Wu, 1979

Gobiodon oculolineatus Wu, 1979 View in CoL : Eyeline Coralgoby

Synonyms or described as: No recorded synonyms.

Description: Gobiodon oculolineatus was named for the two distinctive parallel blue lines, one either side of the eye, which extend down past the eye and onto the cheek ( Figure 20 View FIGURE 20 ). The body is typically darker in colour, frequently brown, but may also appear as a dark grey or red-grey colour. A lighter body colouration has been observed in the northern latitudes from Lizard Island, GBR, and Kimbe Bay, PNG (Froehlich pers. obs.).

Distribution: The known distribution of G. oculolineatus is throughout the western Pacific, primarily the Great Barrier Reef, Papua New Guinea, Pacific Islands and southeast Asian regions, with one record from Oman in the northwest Indian Ocean ( Munday, Harold and Winterbottom, 1999; Duchene et al., 2013; GBIF.Org, 2024).

Habitat: This species is most frequently observed inhabiting a wide variety of Acropora corals ( Munday et al., 1999).

Status: The conservation status of G. oculolineatus is listed as ‘Least Concern’ ( Larson, 2020h).

Sociality: Gobiodon oculolineatus is frequently observed occupying corals in pairs (mean group size: 1.97, SI: 0.33–0.39) ( Hing et al., 2018; Hing, 2019; Froehlich et al., 2024).

Genetics: Gobiodon oculolineatus has only been included in two genetic analyses ( Duchene et al., 2013; Hing et al., 2019). The species is often on an early branch of the clade which includes G. quinquestrigatus , G. spadix , G. reticulatus , G. irregularis , G. bilineatus and G. rivulatus ( Duchene et al., 2013; Herler, Bogorodsky and Suzuki, 2013; Hing et al., 2019).