The mud sleeper Butis koilomatodon (Pisces: Eleotridae): first record from the Western Central Atlantic

Oscar M. Lasso-Alcalá, Carlos Lasso A., Frank Pezold & Michael L. Smith

1 Museo de Historia Natural La Salle (MHNLS), Fundación La Salle de Ciencias Naturales. Apartado Postal 1930, Caracas 1010-A, Venezuela; oscar.lasso@fundacionlasalle.org.ve

2 Museum of Natural History (Zoology), 241 Hanna Hall College of Pure and Applied Sciences, University of Louisiana at Monroe. LA 71209-0504, USA; pezold@ulm.edu

3 Center for Applied Biodiversity Science, Conservation International 1919 M St. NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA; m.smith@conservation.org.

In December, 2002, two specimens of B. koilomatodon (Bleeker, 1879) were collected in Delta of the Orinoco River which forms the eastern coast of Venezuela. New records: MHNLS 15473, (54.6 mm SL), Caño Pedernales (9º 58’ 03" N, 62º 15’ 04" W) and MHNLS 15474, (51,6 mm SL), Caño Venado (10º 01’ 51" N, 62º 26’ 03" W). Previous records: Indian Ocean and Western Pacific (Mozambique. South Africa, Madagascar, India, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnan, China, The Philippines), Eastern Central Pacific (Panama) and the Eastern Central Atlantic (Nigeria). Gratefulnesses: Conservation International y ConocoPhillips Venezuela, they supported the expedition AquaRAP (December 2002) to Gulf of Paria and Delta of the Orinoco river. Ref.: Miller, P. & P. Wongrat. 1990. Eleotridae, p. 952-957. In J. Hureau, C. Karrer, A. Post & L. Saldanha (eds.). Check-list of the fishes of the eastern tropical Atlantic (CLOFETA). JNICT, Lisbon; SEI and UNESCO, Paris. Vol. 2.