Ophichthidae
(including Echelidae, Clofnam 84)
by M.-L. Bauchot
Body very elongate and snake-like, scaleless, snout subconical to pointed; nostrils widely separated, the posterior opening either through a valve in upper lip or as a pore immediately over mouth cleft. Mouth either terminal or inferior. Teeth typically conical, more or less acute or granular, uni- or multiserial on jaws and vomer. Gill openings small, slit-like or round. Branchial region supported by numerous branchiostegal rays that overlap below, some of them free from hyoid arch. Dorsal and anal fins, when present, terminating at some distance from hardened and usually naked caudal extremity (except in Echelus); pectoral fins always absent; caudal fin reduced or absent; median supra-orbital pore always present.
Small- to large-sized fishes, occurring mostly in tropical and subtropical waters; many species benthic, burrowing in sand or mud on continental shelf or upper continental slope (at least for part of the day). Feeding on invertebrates and small fish. Reproduction in warm hydrological season; pelagic larvae (leptocephali) with metamorphosis.
Genera 49 (and 5 unpublished); in Clofnam area 6.
Recent revisions: Blache (1968), Blache and Bauchot (1972 on a regional basis only), McCosker (1977).