''Myrichthys xysturus'' is an

eel Eels are ray-finned fish belonging to the order Anguilliformes (), which consists of eight suborders, 19 families, 111 genera, and about 800 species. Eels undergo considerable development from the early larval stage to the eventual adult stage ...

in the family

Ophichthidae Ophichthidae is a family of fish in the order Anguilliformes, commonly known as the snake eels. The term "Ophichthidae" comes from Greek ''ophis'' ("serpent") and ''ichthys'' ("fish"). Snake eels are also burrowing eels. They are named for thei ...

(worm/snake eels).''Myrichthys xysturus''
at www.fishbase.org. It was described by David Starr Jordan and

Charles Henry Gilbert Charles Henry Gilbert (December 5, 1859 in Rockford, Illinois – April 20, 1928 in Palo Alto, California) was a pioneer ichthyologist and fishery biologist of particular significance to natural history of the western United States. He c ...

in 1882, originally under the genus ''

Ophichthys ''Ophichthys'' is a genus of swamp eels native to South Asia. They live in freshwater or subterranean habitats, and some have a fossorial lifestyle. Taxonomy All species in this genus were formerly classified in '' Monopterus'', but a 2020 ...

''.Jordan, D. S. and C. H. Gilbert, 1882 (6 Apr.) ef. 2470''Descriptions of thirty-three new species of fishes from Mazatlan, Mexico.'' Proceedings of the United States National Museum v. 4 (no. 237): 338-365. It is a marine,

tropical The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...

eel which is known from the eastern central

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contin ...

, including the

Gulf of California The Gulf of California ( es, Golfo de California), also known as the Sea of Cortés (''Mar de Cortés'') or Sea of Cortez, or less commonly as the Vermilion Sea (''Mar Bermejo''), is a marginal sea of the Pacific Ocean that separates the Baja C ...

; Baja California Sur,

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

; and the Galapagos Islands.

References

Myrichthys Western Central American coastal fauna Fish described in 1882 Taxa named by David Starr Jordan Taxa named by Charles Henry Gilbert {{Anguilliformes-stub