Juvenile P.occidentalis

Pseudocoris consists of nine species from the tropical Pacific.  They are underrepresented in the aquarium trade; few specimens find their way into home aquaria compared to other wrasses, partly because this fast-swimming genus is skittish and darts away from divers. Pseudocoris are social wrasses similar to Cirrhilabrus, gathering to eat zooplankton from the water column.

As their name suggests, Pseudocoris are evolutionary offshoots of Coris wrasses.  Like Coris, juvenile Pseudocoris look very different than adults as these photos show.

The open access paper describing these two new species is published in The Journal of The Ocean Science Foundation and also features a very nice, academic review of the genus Pseudocoris with photos of the other incredible species in this genus.

Terminal phase P.heteroptera

Juvenile P.heteroptera