page_title: Fourspot butterflyfish
section_title: Social structure
hierarchical_section_title: Fourspot butterflyfish / Social structure
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: シテンチョウチョウウオ Chaetodon quadrimaculatus
context_page_description: The four-spotted butterflyfish or fourspot butterflyfish is a species of butterflyfish found in the Pacific Ocean from the Ryukyus, Ogasawara Islands and Taiwan to the Hawaiian, Marquesan, and Pitcairn islands, south to the Samoan and Austral Islands and the Marianas and Marshall Islands in Micronesia.
  The fourspot butterflyfish is a marine coralivorous organism. Therefore, its noted geographic distribution, as well as population-level spatial distribution and temporal variation in density, is correlated to relative distributions and abundance of the corals that butterflyfish are dependent on for food.
  It is a quite distinct species, but most closely related to the speckled butterflyfish. Together they are basal in the subgenus Exornator, and might be intermediate between the core group of this subgenus and the species of the Rhombochaetodon lineage. If that is correct, the latter would require to be merged into Exornator. If the genus Chaetodon is split up, Exornator might become a subgenus of Lepidochaetodon.
  Butterflyfish as a family are a common marine aquarium specimen as a result of their varying colors and patterns, and contribute to 4% of the global fish trade.
context_section_description: Owning to their obligate dependence on corals, fourspot butterflyfish tend to be distributed in stable feeding territories with high fidelity for each site and male-dominated defense mechanisms. The  social structure is dominated by heterosexual, adult pair-bonds, while juveniles are typically solitary.    However, there have also been observations of homosexual pair bonds and pair bonds between sexually immature butterflyfish in this genus.  Therefore, the evolution of pair bonds may offer benefits beyond increasing reproductive fitness.  Other proposed advantages of pair-bonding include increased foraging efficiency and vigilance against predators. Within heterosexual pair-bonds, evidence supports the evolution of sex-specific roles rather than mutual territory defense. In this division of labor, males  actively defend territory allowing females to successfully forage and therefore increase their fecundity.
caption: Juvenile
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