Prolific illustrator Scott Partridge has recently created an amazing poster featuring all* of the species of Chaetodon butterflyfish. The Chaetodon poster features 88 species of the beloved reef butterflyfish with each species being illustrated in an informative digital style.
This approach to illustrating these similar-looking fish is probably the best way possible to highlight the species-specific features of all the Chaetodon, making it much much easier to spot the differences that are unique to each species. Not only is this poster so complete and informative, but it looks really attractive as an infographic-sort of educational poster that could be put just about anywhere in the home or the fish store.
Even very closely looking species like Chaetodon melannotus and C. ocellicauda look pretty distinct when displayed in this graphical format, and Mr. Partridge did his best to group all of the closely related species for easy comparison. Better yet the Chaetodon poster features nearly all of the species in this genus of butterflyfish, with rare species like C. sacntahelenae, C. litus, C. smithi and C. nigropunctatus also represented.
The ultimate Chaetodon poster is available from Scott Partridge through several different vendors with small 8 x 10 inch posters selling for as little as $15 and larger 28 x 36″ posters retailing for $50 and several sizes in between. [Society6]
* Only the under-deep dwelling Chaetodon guyotensis is missing from the lineup, but that fish is so rarely seen that not a single image exists of this species alive, and divers will never encounter it in real life anyway. Also, some ichthyologists now classify this species as Prognathodes guyotensis. Finally, the modest butterflyfish is now classified as Roa modestus but this change is recent enough to overlook for the sake of this awesome poster.
