ABSTRACT
Considerable research attention has focused on the feeding habits of coral reef butterflyfishes, especially Chaetodon butterflyfishes (reviewed by Cole et al., 2008), largely due to their propensity to feed on corals (more specifi cally, reef-building scleractinian corals). Coral feeding infers a very high dependence upon living corals, which has led to suggestions that changes in the abundance (or behaviour) of butterfl yfi shes may provide an effective indicator for declines in coral cover (e.g., Khalaf and Crosby, 2005; Gochfeld, 2006), or even declining condition of entire coral reef ecosystems (Reese, 1977; Hourigan et al., 1988; Crosby and Reese, 1996, 2005). Butterfl yfi shes, especially highly specialised coral-feeding species, are certainly sensitive to changes in the availability of scleractinian corals (e.g., Crosby and Reese, 2005; Samways, 2005; Pratchett et al., 2006; Graham, 2007; Wilson et al., Chapter 14). However, responses of butterfl yfi shes to coral loss are very complex, highly species-specifi c, and often delayed, which
ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia. aEmail: andrew.cole3@jcu.edu.au bEmail: morgan.pratchett@jcu.edu.au *Corresponding author
greatly reduces their effectiveness as indicators of coral health (Crosby et al., Chapter 10). Variation in dietary breadth and composition among butterfl yfi shes, which determines coral-dependence, is nonetheless very important in understanding inherent vulnerabilities of butterfl yfi shes to sustained and ongoing coral loss associated with the worldwide degradation of coral reef ecosystems (Pratchett et al., 2008a, Pratchett, Chapter 6).
