Ophichthid Eels — Gosline 
309 
4b. Dorsal and anal present, though sometimes 
low and inconspicuous. 
6a. Dorsal commencing well ahead of gill 
openings. Lower jaw inferior. 
7a. Pectorals absent; tail (measured from 
anus) shorter than trunk (measured 
■ from gill openings to anus). Dorsal 
high, anal low. 
6. Callechelys luteus 
7b. Pectorals present; tail longer than 
trunk. 
8a. Pectoral short, rounded, its length 
less than the width of its base; 
upper lip not fringed. 
9a. Color pattern consisting of 
several longitudinal series of 
spots on sides. 
7. Myrichthys maciilosiis 
9b. Color pattern consisting of a 
series of about 29 dark saddles 
of varying depth, but on an 
average reaching down approx- 
imately to the lateral line. 
8. Myrichthys hleekeri 
8b. Pectoral considerably longer than 
broad; edge of upper lip fringed. 
9. Cirrhimuraena macgregori 
6b. Dorsal commencing about over or be- 
hind the gill openings. 
10a. Lower jaw inferior; upper lip 
without a series of papillae. 
11a. Anterior nostrils with leaf- 
like appendages (Fig. 17). 
10. Phyllophichthus xenodontus 
lib. Anterior nostrils without 
leaf -like appendages. 
12a. Body plain. Eye about 
equal to snout length. 
(This species, probably 
from moderately deep 
water, will be dealt with 
in a report on the fishes 
killed by the Mauna Loa 
lava flow of 1950.) 
11. Ophichthidae, new species 
12b. Body with well-marked 
spots or saddles. 
13a. Mouth small and dis- 
tinctly inferior, the 
snout projecting be- 
yond tip of lower jaw 
by more than two eye 
diameters; teeth small, 
completely lacking on 
vomer. 
12. Leiuranus semicinctus 
13b. Mouth large, little in- 
ferior, the snout pro- 
jecting by less than an 
eye diameter; teeth 
large, sharp, present 
on vomer. Dorsal 
commencing approx- 
imately over gill open- 
ing. 
13. Ophichthus polyophthalmus 
lOb. Lower jaw somewhat pro- 
jecting; upper lip papillate or 
fringed. Teeth long, fang- 
like; eye well forward of cen- 
ter of cleft of mouth; dorsal 
commencing well behind gill 
opening. 
14. Brachysomophls henshawi 
MURAENICHTHYS Bleeker 
p As already mentioned, the most recent 
paper on the genus (Schultz and Woods, 
1949) interprets the limits of the genus 
Muraenichthys very broadly, including in it 
several genera usually recognized as distinct 
by previous authors. In the same paper, 
Schultz and Woods describe a species, 
Muraenichthys johnstonensis, which expands 
still further the limits of the genus as under- 
stood by them. It seems to me that M. 
johnstonensis deserves at least subgeneric rank, 
which it is given here under the name 
Schultzidia. 
Schultzidia new subgenus 
subgenotype: Muraenichthys johnstonensis 
Schultz and Woods (1949: 172). 
The species of this subgenus, as Schultz 
and Woods point out, differ immediately 
from other species of Muraenichthys in totally 
lacking teeth on the intermaxillary and vomer. 
Vomerine teeth are usually well developed in 
the Ophichthidae, and their absence has long 
been considered a generic character in the 
group — in Leiuranus, even by Gunther (1870: 
54), Schultz (1943: 14), and others; and in 
Ahlia by Jordan and Davis (1892: 639), Myers 
and Storey (1939: 158), and Wade (1946: 
199). On the other hand, Ahlia has been 
synonymized under Myrophis, a genus typical- 
ly with vomerine teeth, by Parr (1930: 8), 
Hildebrand (in Longley and Hildebrand, 
1941: 17), and Schultz and Woods (1949: 
171). The absence of intermaxillary teeth in 
Schultzidia is, so far as I know, unique among 
the Ophichthidae, though the dentition or 
