Pablo Picasso, Eat Your Heart Out.

Lei Triggerfish, Kailua Pier, March 2012

    Back when I was learning the fishes of Hawaii at the knee of Gar Goodson (the author of The Many-Splendored Fishes of Hawaii, Marquest Colorguide Books, 1973) I had a set of common names indelibly etched in that twisted corner of my brain that is devoted to fish identification.  I was a mere sprat, not having yet turned 30, never having used an antiquarian bird book or one that dealt with birds outside the United States.  Little did I know that any author can coin a name for an animal, put it in print and it might very well catch on.  Mr. Goodson (I can find no clear indication that he was a Ph.D. ichthyologist ) got plenty wrong in this book, and his artist, Philip Weisgerber, made some critical mistakes.  However, they did give us a base for reef fish identification.  In the process, they gave us some names to write down on lists, committing them to posterity.  Some of those names, like the Whiteline Triggefish occur no where else. I still use a few of them them thirty years later.

The Yellow Lei Variant was wary of the lens.

    Just yesterday I went swimming at the pier.  The water was clear and warm.  I have been thinking that I did not have a good picture of the Lei Triggerfish  so I took advantage of a couple cooperative specimens and nabbed the pictures you see here.  The Lei is a not an uncommon fish, but it is wary and, where the situation allows, it is frequently deep.  As an aside, taking pictures in a shallow environment like the Kailua pier or Kahalu'u, assures you that if nothing else the fish will be near the surface, closer to your camera and better illuminated. 

This photo demonstrates the dependent bursa.

    There are two color variants of the Lei Triggerfish.  Gar and Phil pictured only one.  Our hero, John Hoover, brought live fish photos to a useable field guide.   In the Ultimate Guide, he only pictures the lighter colored fish with the black lei.  Curiously, Jack Randall, (the greatest ichthyologist in the world) shows only one, but he pictures the dark colored individual with the mustard colored lei.  I didn't get as close to the guy with the yellow lei, but I'm sure you appreciate the photographic negative effect between the two fish.  Hoover states that individuals change from one color variant to the other, perhaps based on their emotional state.  The GIW does not.  I've never seen an individual change, but Mr. Google cites a home aquarist who has seen the "scythe markings" change color from black to tan. Wikipedia says its true with the caveat, citation needed.   I'd like to see it myself.

    In  days of Gar / When men were yar. / And photos weren't invented.
   We'd aim our spar /  And squirt the tar /  And so go home contented. 

R. aculeatus, the Lagoon Triggerfish,  Hello Dali!

    Where the hell did that come from?   The men's room at the Waikiki Aqaurium?     Let's try again.  In 1973, Goodson named Sufflamem bursa the Whiteline Triggerfish.  And so I called it for many years.  It is now commonly known as the Lei Triggerfish, taking advantage of the Hawaiian name, humu humu lei. At least here in Hawai'i.  In Australia it is known as the Boomerang Triggerfish, referring to the kangaroo-killing weapon of their own aborigines.  I am not sure if the Abos  had any  relationship with the reef fish similar to that of the Hawaiian Polynesians, but it does make for a catchy handle.  And lastly, to aquarists (who are likely providing homes to orphans who seem to have lost their spot on the reef...the bastards) they are known as Bursa Triggerfish. 
    My favorite triggerfish, the Lagoon, was called Painted Triggerfish by Gar Goodson, subsequently Picasso Triggerfish and now, by most people, the Lagoon Triggerfish.

Rectangular Triggerfish, R. recangularis,  Kahalu'u 2011

    The State Fish of Hawai'i is humu humu nuku nuku apu a'a.   This name applies to the Lagoon and the Rectangular Triggerfish.  But only the Rectangular is the state fish.  This is the name that Gar Goodson used and which I still use.  I assume that it is the traditional name as the scientific name is  Rhinecanthus rectangularis.   The currently accepted common name is the Reef Triggerfish.  How dull.   I only wonder why this triggerfish wasn't known as the Picasso.  Doesn't it smack of cubism?   Does the Lagoon look like the wild horse in Guernica?  I think a reasonable compromise, and one that I am proposing here, is to name the R. recangularis the Picasso Triggerfish, celebrating the famous Spanish cubist and to name R. aculeatus after the great Spanish surrealist, the Salvador Dali Triggerfish.  That ought to clear things up. (Not!)  But you're seeing it in print, so it must be true!

jeff