Carapus bermudensis (Jones 1874)

Smith-Vaniz, William F. & Jelks, Howard L., 2014, Marine and inland fishes of St. Croix, U. S. Virgin Islands: an annotated checklist, Zootaxa 3803 (1), pp. 1-120 : 28

* Carapus bermudensis (Jones 1874) — Pearlfish

Justification: ZMUC P.771709 (1, 157 mm SL), St. Croix, Oct. 1829.

Distribution: Tyler et al. (1992) WA (BD, FL, GOM, BA, GA, VI, LA, WC, nSA, sSA).

Remarks: The Pearlfish is an obligate inquiline within the body cavity of sea cucumbers ( Markle and Olney, 1990) and in shallow water its preferred host is Actinopyga agassizi but it has also been reported from six other holothurian genera listed in Tyler et al. (1992). The paucity of records of the pearlfish from St. Croix is most likely a collecting artifact owing to its inquiline behavior.

OPHIDIIDAE —cusk-eels (5 species)