Chaetodon hoefleri Steindachner, 1881 , was doubtfully reported from the central Mediterranean by Torchio (1968) on the basis of a specimen received from Professor A. Vatova. According to Tortonese (1975) all records of butterfly fishes in the Mediterranean, including old citations from the Adriatic as C. octofasciatus and C. niger, are to be considered doubtful due to the lack of habitat type (i.e. coral reefs) required by these fishes. Nevertheless, Monod (1979) mentions a living specimen taken at Les Goudes, near Marseille on July 1959 and Nalbant (1986) confirms the presence, although sporadic, of the species in the western Mediterranean. It is not included in the lists of Golani et al. (2002) and of Zenetos et al. (2010).