The brownburnie (Chaetodon blackburnii), also known as Blackburn's butterflyfish or the rayed butterflyfish, is a species of marine ray-finned fish, a butterflyfish belonging to the familyChaetodontidae. It is found in the western Indian Ocean.
The brownburnie is rather drab when compared to many of its congeners.[2] The body of this species is mainly brownish black with the head and front part of the body being bright yellow with a black vertical bar running across the eye. The dark colour extends onto the dorsal fin and the anal fin while the pelvic fins are bright yellow.[3] The dorsal fin contains 16 spines and 21-23 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 17-18 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of 13 centimetres (5.1 in).[4]
The brownburnie inhabits shallow rocky reefs and calm bays with limited growth of coral.[5] They are found wither solitarily or in pairs. They are omnivorous and feed on benthic invertebrates[1] such as bivalves, soft coral polyps, crustaceans and worms[5] as well as zooplankton.[1] it is an oviparous species in which the male and females mate as pairs.[4]
The brownburnie was first formally described in 1836 by the Frenchnaturalist Julien Desjardins (1799-1840) with the type locality given as Mauritius.[6] The specific name honours the English jurist Edward Berens Blackburn (1786-1839)[7] who was the Chief Justice of Mauritius from 1824 to 1835[8] and president of the Société d’Histoire Naturelle de l’Ile Maurice (the Natural History Society of the island of Mauritius).[7]
