Apterichtus kendalli ( Gilbert 1891 )

Hibino, Yusuke, 2015, A review of the finless snake eels of the genus Apterichtus (Anguilliformes: Ophichthidae), with the description of five new species, Zootaxa 3941 (1), pp. 49-78 : 65-66

Apterichtus kendalli ( Gilbert 1891)

Table 1

Sphagebranchus kendalli Gilbert 1891:310 (type locality off Florida, Gulf of Mexico, holotype USNM 44304). Verma kendalli : Jordan and Evermann 1896:375.

Caecula kendalli: Myers and Wade 1941:75 .

Sphagebranchus sp. vel. acutirostris (non Brisout de Barneville 1847): Cadenat and Marchal 1963:1240 ( St. Helena Island record).

Apterichtus kendalli: McCosker 1977:66 .

Diagnosis. An elongate species with: tail 1.8–1.9, head 14–19, and body depth 53–67 in total length; 3 preopercular pores and 3 pores in supratemporal canal; teeth conical, uniserial on jaws and vomer; 5–7 vomerine teeth; body coloration nearly uniform pale yellow to tan, fresh specimens have a fine sprinkling of melanophores which can take on a mottled or freckled appearance; two brown blotches behind the eye surround a pale patch about equal to eye; and MVF 62–142, total vertebrae 137–145 (n=14).

Size. The largest specimen examined is 542 mm, sex unknown.

Distribution. Known from the western Atlantic, from the Carolinas, Florida, Bermuda, Bahamas, Lesser Antilles and Brazil, and St. Helena Island, from between 6–401 m (mostly 30–80 m) depth.

Remarks. Most of this treatment is taken from McCosker et al. (1989:321–322). Leiby (1982) described and illustrated the leptocephalus of A. kendalli . The St. Helena record is based on Cadenat and Marchal’s (1963) description of 15 specimens (90–422 mm) collected by dredge at 43 m depth off Lemon Valley, St. Helena. A 363 mm specimen from that collection was described and illustrated by Blache and Bauchot (1972:702–705) and agrees with A. kendalli in its cephalic pore condition, dentition, and vertebral number (143). Leiby (1981) stated that larvae identified as A. kendalli by Blache (1977) and by Fahay and Obenchain (1978) are actually Callechelys muraena .

Material examined. 26 specimens, 78–542 mm TL, including the holotype ( USNM 44304, ca. 169 mm TL). Those specimens are listed in McCosker et al. (1989:322).