First reported records of the leopard cusk-eel Lepophidium pardale (Ophidioidei: Ophidiidae) off the west coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico

摘要

The family Ophidiidae contains 48 genera and 222 species, distributed mainly in tropical and temperate waters of the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian oceans (Nelson, 2006). Nineteen of these species, including the leopard cusk-eel, Lepophidium pardale (Gilbert, 1890), inhabit the continental shelf of the tropical Eastern Pacific (Robertson and Allen, 2002). Lepophidium pardale grows to a length of 260 mm; its vertical range is 6–100 m (Lea, 1995; Chirichigno and Velez, 1998).