A rare species of Uropterygius (Anguilliformes, Muraenidae) found in the stomach content of a Yellow-lipped Sea Krait from Japan

Abstract

The specimen is provisionally identified as U. xenodontus and is described below with its morphs, as an important addition to material of rare specimens of the genus in the western North Pacific.

First Records of <i>Uropterygius oligospondylus</i> (Anguilliformes: Muraenidae) from Minami-iwo-to Island, Southern Japan

“…Most of these inhabit shallow waters above 100 m depth, some species, e.g., U. micropterus (Bleeker, 1852) and U. concolor (Rüppell, 1838), can be found from tidepool and/or estuary waters. Seven valid and one unidentified species (Japanese standard name: Hoshi-kikai-utsubo) of the genus have been recorded from Japanese waters based on reliable specimens (Hatooka 2013;Koeda and Hibino 2017;Koeda 2018;Tashiro et al 2018). In addition, Wada and Motomura (2019) reported one species Uropterygius cf.…”