Ophiocara porocephala (Valenciennes, 1837)

Esmaeili, Hamid Reza, Jufaili, Saud Al, Masoumi, Amir Hassan & Zarei, Fatah, 2022, Ichthyodiversity in southeastern Arabian Peninsula: Annotated checklist taxonomy, short description and distribution of Inland fishes of Oman, Zootaxa 5134 (4), pp. 451-503 : 478-479

12. Ophiocara porocephala (Valenciennes, 1837) , Native

Fig. 32

Etymology: The Greek, ophis = serpent, kara = face; porocephala : refers to the snout shape.

Common name: Spangled Gudgeon, Northern Mud Gudgeon.

Taxonomy: Eleotris porocephala was originally described by Valenciennes [A.] in Cuvier & Valenciennes 1837:237 [Histoire naturelle des poissons v. 12] from Seychelles.

Lectotype: MNHN 2020-0477 . Paralectotypes: MNHN A-1573 (4) Seychelles , MNHN A-1574 (2) New Ireland .

Synonyms: Eleotris porocephala Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1837, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v. 12: 237. Eleotris ophicephalus Valenciennes (ex Kuhl and Van Hasselt) in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1837, Hist.Nat. Poiss., v. 12: 239. Eleotris madagascariensis Valenciennes in Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1837, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v. 12: 240. Eleotris viridis Bleeker, 1849 , Verh. Batav.Genootsch. Kunst. Wet., v. 22: 22. Eleotris kuak Montrouzier, 1857 , Ann. Soc. Imp. Agric. Hist. Nat. Lyon, v. 8 (1856): 465.

Short description: Body stout, cylindrical; head dorsally flattened; anterior nostril long reaching lower margin of upper lip; mouth large, length of upper jaw 12.3–15.8% SL; posterior end of maxillary extending to below central to posterior part of eye; gill opening extending beyond the posterior end of urohyal; teeth inwardly curved, thickly set on both jaws, large on outer row and anterior part of inner row of upper jaw, and large on anterior part of outer row and posterior part of inner row of lower jaw; two separate dorsal fins (D VI; I, 8–9); pectoral fins rounded (P 14–16); ventral fins separate; anal fin (A I, 7–8); caudal fin rounded (C 17); scales large, cycloid from snout to posterior part of head, mixed with ctenoid posteriorly to beginning of dorsal fin; ctenoid to eye on lateral side of head and to base of pelvic fins; lateral line absent; 33–37 mid-lateral scales; 12–14 horizontal scale rows; 18–26 predorsal scales; gill rakers 11–13; vertebrae 26 (rarely 27).

General distribution: Indian Ocean: South Africa, East Africa, Seychelles, Madagascar and western Mascarenes east western Sumatra, southern Java and southern Bali ( Indonesia). Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine.

Distribution in Oman: Janouf, Dhofar Governorate ( Fig. 33 ).

Comments: Kottelat (2013: 394) used the combination Ophiocara ophicephalus recognizing as first reviser Günther (1861: 107) who gave precedence to ophicephalus over porocephala . Treated as O. porocephala by Larson et al. (2017) and by an overwhelming number of ichthyologists in recent and past literature. The taxonomy of this species has never been reviewed and it may represent more than one species (see Parenti 2021).

Examined material: ZM-CBSU: O015. Op 101, 4, Oman: Janouf, 17°02ʹ03ʹʹN, 54°16ʹ59ʹʹE, Al-Jufaili, Nov. 2020 .

Figures

FIGURE 32. Ophiocara porocephala, Oman: Jaunuf.

FIGURE 33. Distribution map of Ophiocara porocephala in Oman. Pink: Southwestern Arabian Coast, green: Oman Mountains, and yellow: Arabian Interior.