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.
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