The Waigeo rainbowfish (''Melanotaenia catherinae'') is a species of

rainbowfish The rainbowfish or Melanotaeniidae is a family of small, colourful freshwater fish found in northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea (including islands in Cenderawasih Bay and Raja Ampat Islands in Indonesia), Sulawesi and Madagascar. The lar ...

in the

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Melanotaeniinae Melanotaeniinae the Australian rainbowfishes is a subfamily of the rainbowfishes of the family Melanotaeniidae. They are a group of small, colourful, freshwater fish found in northern and eastern Australia, New Guinea, islands in Cenderawasih Bay ...

. It is

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to West Papua in

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

. It reaches a maximum length of around 7.5 cm. This species was described as ''Rhombatractus catherinae'' in 1910 by Lieven Ferdinand de Beaufort, de Beaufort from a type locality which was given as a rivulet flowing into the Rabial River in

Waigeo Waigeo is an island in Southwest Papua province of eastern Indonesia. The island is also known as Amberi, or Waigiu. It is the largest of the four main islands in the Raja Ampat Islands Raja Ampat, or the ''Four Kings'', is an archipelago loc ...

. de Beaufort gave this species the

specific name Specific name may refer to: * in Database management systems, a system-assigned name that is unique within a particular database In taxonomy, either of these two meanings, each with its own set of rules: * Specific name (botany), the two-part (bino ...

''catherinae'' to honour his wife, Catherine, who had assisted him on the expedition on which the type was collected.

References

*Allen, G.R. (1991). Field guide to the freshwater fishes of New Guinea. Christensen Research Institute, Madang, Papua New Guinea. *Allen, G. R. and P. J. Unmack (2008). A new species of rainbowfish (Melanotaeniidae: Melanotaenia), from Batanta Island, western New Guinea. Aqua, International Journal of Ichthyology 13 (3-4): 109–120. *de Beaufort, L. F. (1910). Weitere Bestätigung einer zoogeographischen Prophezeiung. Zoologischer Anzeiger. 36 (12/13): 249–252.
Waigeo rainbowfish on Home of the Rainbowfish

Waigeo rainbowfish The Waigeo rainbowfish (''Melanotaenia catherinae'') is a species of rainbowfish in the subfamily Melanotaeniinae. It is endemic to West Papua in Indonesia. It reaches a maximum length of around 7.5 cm. This species was described as ''Rhom ...

Freshwater fish of Western New Guinea Taxonomy articles created by Polbot Fish described in 1910 {{Atheriniformes-stub