White with four black bars, in pairs on reef. The commonest butterflyfish in much of the region alongside the foureye.
To about 16 cm, though one source gives 20. Silvery-white with four prominent black bars — one through the eye, two across the body and one at the rear — and fine dark chevron lines between them, with a dark band on the outer part of the tail. Juveniles carry the same four bars plus a large eyespot on the soft dorsal and no bar on the tail.
Two fish to rule out. The foureye butterflyfish has one large white-ringed eyespot below the rear dorsal and no body bars at all. The spotfin butterflyfish has a plain white body with no chevron lines.
Three to seventy metres, usually five to twenty, over reef, with juveniles in seagrass. It is seen alone or in monogamous pairs, occasionally in feeding groups of up to twenty. Adults have been recorded picking parasites off grunts, parrotfish and surgeonfish. Courtship is a drawn-out circling and spawning is at dusk.
It is not an obligate coral feeder: polychaetes, coral polyps, crustaceans and mollusc eggs.
Ratings are per location: 1 means found on most dives that look for it, 5 means a handful of records. Where enough dives have been logged the figure is calculated from them; otherwise it is an editorial estimate, and says so. We publish habitat and destination, not the dive site.