Doublesash butterflyfish

The doublesash butterflyfish has a silvery-white body marked with three broad yellowish-brown vertical bands, another one runs through the eyes, and there is a similar coloured caudal peduncle. The caudal fin has a yellow band while the dorsal and anal fins are yellow.[2] The dorsal fin contains 11 spines and 23-24 soft rays while the anal fin has 3 spines and 18-19 soft rays. This species attains a maximum total length of 20 centimetres (7.9 in).[3]

The doublesash butterflyfish is found off Southern Africa from Delagoa Bay in Mozambique to Lambert's Bay on the Atlantic coast of Western Cape Province in South Africa.[1]

The doublesash butterflyfish can be found on both rock and coral reefs, as well as in estuaries.[3] They may be found at depths of up to 120 metres (390 ft).[1] This is an oviparous species which forms pairs for spawning.[3] This species is omnivorous and feeds on macroalgae,[2] as well as benthic invertebrates such as polychaetes, crustaceans, hydroids and ascidians.[4]

The doublesash butterflyfish was first formally described in 1921 by the English ichthyologist Charles Tate Regan (1878-1943) with the type locality given as East London.[5] Regan honoured the collector of the type, the Natal fisheries officer Harold Walter Bell-Marley (1872-1945), in the specific name.[6] Its closest relative is the West African Chaetodon hoefleri.[4] Some authorities place this species within the nominate subgenus Chaetodon but others consider it to be incertae sedis.[6]