Neoniphon sammara (Forsskål in Niebuhr 1775) —Bloodspot squirrelfish (Fig. 27)

Status at New Ireland. First recorded from St. Mathias as Holocentrum sammara by Duncker & Mohr (1929: 71), based on ZMH 11999, record confimed by Kotlyar (1998: 205). A specimen photographed at Lissenung Island, Kavieng District, 5 m depth, by Dean Tully on 6 July 2011; a video of a specimen taken in Alexander Passage, southeast of New Hanover, at 5–14 m depth, St. KR96, in 2014 (identified by Barry C. Russell).

Distribution and habitat. New Ireland: 1, 2, 4.—General distribution: Red Sea, East Africa, Madagascar and Mascarenes east to Line Islands and Pitcairn Group, north to southern Japan, Ogasawara and Hawaiian islands, south to Western Australia at 20°33'S, Lord Howe Island, Tonga and Rapa. Found in seagrass beds and hard bottom habitats on lagoon and seaward coral and rocky reefs, often associated with branching Acropora coral, 0–46 m depth. Marine.