Hey Luiz, a question again. The melanurus wrasse is in Halichoeres kind or Platyglossus.
Thank
David
Ah... Good question, the taxonomy of this entire group is a big mess. Some genetic work suggests that
Halichoeres should be split into several smaller genera, and
Platyglossus is one of them. The problem is that there is no morphological diagnosis for those "new" genera, and the genetics work that suggested splitting did not include about 40% of all
Halichoeres out there, so the question is far from resolved.
The fact of not having all
Halichoeres in the genetic tree of relationships have many consequences. First, relationships may change if you add more species to the tree. Second, there are several other genus names available out there, so let's say we start calling this particular species
Platyglossus, but as we add more species to the tree we find one with an older genus name that fits in this branch, and then we have to change the name again (in taxonomy we always have to use the oldest name). So, because of this, my suggestion is that we keep using
Halichoeres until we have a more complete combined (genetics and morphology) analysis. And that is what is reflected in the Catalog of Fishes, the one source for fish naming issues:
http://researcharchive.calacademy.org/research/Ichthyology/catalog/fishcatmain.asp
You can search for any species in the link above, and look for "Current Status", that should tell you what the valid name is.
Hope I wasn't too technical, but let me know if you have more questions.