First record of Echiophis brunneus (Teleosteo: Ophichthidae) " Fangjaw eel" for northern Peru

• Autores: Campos-León, Sarita, Miranda, Junior, Moreno-Méndez, Andrey, Vásquez, Cinthia
• Formato: artículo
• Fecha de Publicación: 2023
• Institución: Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• Repositorio: Revistas - Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos
• Lenguaje: español
• OAI Identifier: oai:ojs.csi.unmsm:article/23889
• Enlace del recurso: https://revistasinvestigacion.unmsm.edu.pe/index.php/rpb/article/view/e23889
• Nivel de acceso: acceso abierto
• Materia: new record, marine biodiversity, morphological identification, DNA barcoding; nuevo registro, biodiversidad marina, identificación morfológica, código de barras de ADN.

Echiophis brunneus, commonly known as freckled eel, is a coastal benthic specie of the Ophichthidae family. Its distribution, for the Eastern Pacific, is reported from the Gulf of California (USA) to the Gulf of Guayaquil (Ecuador). The presence of E. brunneus is reported for the first time from three specimens captured in northern Peru. A new maximum size for the species is also recorded and a COI sequence is added to the BoldSystems database. The external and morphometric characteristics of the analyzed specimens matches the Echiophis genus and E. brunneus. One of the main characteristics for their determination was the observation of the large canine tooth located in the distal area of the vomer. At the molecular level, the COI sequences of  652 base pairs, with 80 variable sites and 24 parsimony informative sites of the species of the Echiophis genus, were aligned. The genetic distances (Kimura 1980) between E. brunneus wirh E. punctifer and E. intertinctus were 0.087 ±0.013 and 0.095 ±0.014, respectively. The specimens were found in slightly warm oceanographic conditions with the presence of equatorial surface waters and normal ones, typical of warm Kelvin waves arrival to the north-central Peruvian coast, causing the displacement of the species to the La Libertad Region, so we suggest that it is possible the establishment of a population of this species on the north coast of Peru.