Gymnothorax ocellatus (Agasssiz 1831)

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 : 24

* Gymnothorax ocellatus (Agasssiz 1831) — Ocellated Moray

Justification: Whiteman (2005:21 and 24) listed as hook & line bycatch based on one specimen of " Gymnothorax ocella [sic],Ocellated moray, " from the northeast end of St. Croix including Lang Bank .

Distribution: Böhlke et al. (1989): WA (GA, VI, LA, WC, nSA, sSA)

Remarks: Voucher specimens are required to confirm the above species record, which could have been based on G. conspersus . We provisionally accept the identification because there are confirmed records of G. ocellatus from the northern Virgin Islands. Böhlke et al. (1989:175) stated that this "is the most common moray taken by trawl in the Caribbean ... in depths commonly ranging from 15 ─ 90 m. ” They also reported that a few specimens were taken by hook and line. All of the St. Croix hook and line fish listed by Whiteman (2005) are relatively shallow-water species, which agrees with the depth range of Gymnothorax ocellatus in contrast to the much deeper depths (> 200 m) commonly recorded for G. conspersus .