First Specimens of the Fangjaw Eel Echiophis brunneus (Pisces: Ophichthidae) from the Gulf of California, Mexico

Abstract

The fangjaw eel was first referred to by McCosker (1977) as an undescribed ophichthid species of the genus Echiophis Kaup 1856, with a potential distribution from the Gulf of California to Panama. Castro-Aguirre and Suarez de los Cobos (1983) described this ophichthid fish as a new genus and species (Notophtophis brunneus) on the basis of a specimen collected in Bahia de Acapulco, Guerrero, Mexico. McCosker et al. (1989) reassigned this new taxon into the known genus Echiophis, which contains five nominal species in the Atlantic and one or two species in the eastern Pacific.