Wrought Iron Butterflyfish

Chaetodon daedalma is mainly metallic black in colour with yellow margins to the dorsal, anal and caudal fin. The body has some markings resembling a cross hatch in pattern. The scales, have pale yellow centres and broad black margins forming a lattice or netted pattern. The largely black colouration is very unusual for a species of butterflyfish which are normally much more colourful. This species attains a maximum total length of 15 centimetres (5.9 in).

Chaetodon daedalma is endemic to Japan where it is found on the main islands of Japan south of Sagami Bay, as well as the Ryukyu Islands, the Ogasawara Islands, and the Izu Islands.

Chaetodon daedalma was first formally described in 1902 by the American ichthyologists David Starr Jordan (1851–1931) and Henry Weed Fowler (1878–1965) with the type locality given as Naha, Okinawa Island in the Ryukyu Islands. The specific name daedalma means a style of artistic embroidery and refers to the patterning shown by this species.