Common names: jawfish (English), bocón (Espanol)
 
Opistognathus smithvanizi Bussing & Lavenberg, 2003



Eye-spot jawfish

Body robust, compressed; head short, with blunt snout that projects only a little beyond eye; eye large; nape profile convex; skin on head rough, especially on snout; front nostril with a long, club-shaped cirrus; top margin of operculum straight, without a conspicuous flap; top jaw reaches well behind eye, sexually dimorphic, with rounded with concave rear edge in female, and a long curved, pointed extension in male; 1 tooth at front of roof of mouth in male, none in female; spaces between rows of teeth with large papillae; 33-36 gill rakers; dorsal fin X-XI, 16-17, fin height increasing towards rear; anal III, 16; tail fin rounded; head and body before base of pectoral fin scaleless, scaly thereafter, 81-94 oblique scale rows;   lateral line on front half of body only, ending under second soft ray of dorsal fin, 52-62 pores. 


Preserved fish: head and body yellowish brown; top of head with brown network; 4 thin dark bars with pale centers radiating forward (to nostrils) and down from eye;  a black blotch at lower edge of eye and another at rear edge of eye; a diffuse dark bar across chin continues back along lower jaw; mouth tail and pectoral fins clear, other fins brown; 5 wide irregular dark brown bars on body extend onto dorsal fin; front of dorsal fin with a vague dusky blotch between spines IV-VII; top jaw with two inner dark stripes in male;  inside mouth with a contrasting black and white color pattern that includes a black blotch on each side of opening to gut.



        Size: 7.6 cm.

Habitat: burrows in sand and rubble.

Depth: 9-20m.

        Isla del Caño, Costa Rica, to western Panama.