Scuticaria okinawae


Scuticaria okinawae is a moray eel found in the Pacific and Indian Oceans. It is commonly known as the shorttailed snake moray, shorttail moray, Seale's moray eel, or the Bennett's moray.

Description

The shorttail moray is uniform gray or brown in color, and attains a length of up to SL.

Taxonomy

Scutaria okinawae was previously referred to as Gymnomuraena bennetti, Scuticaria bennetti, or Uropterygius bennetti in a number of publications. However, Böhlke and McCosker demonstrated that Gymnomuraena bennetti is a junior synonym of Channomuraena vittata, so they resurrected okinawae for the eel previously misidentified as bennetti. Uropterygius unicolor Seale, 1917 and Gymnomuraena brevicauda Regan, 1903 are synonyms.