Two sets of crossing lines meeting at an angle; common in shallow water and around jetties.
To about 23 cm, white to pale yellow with two sets of fine dark lines — one running down and back from the nape, the other up and back from the belly — meeting at an angle on the flank, plus a black bar through the eye and a black band across the base of the tail. The pattern is shared in outline with several relatives; the crossing chevrons and the yellow rear body separate it.
It is among the most tolerant butterflyfishes of turbid and disturbed water, and is common around jetties, reef flats and rubble as well as on clean reef. It feeds on algae, coral polyps, worms and small crustaceans, which is a wider diet than most of the family and explains the range. Usually in pairs that stay together across a dive. Recorded from the shallows to about 30 m.
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.