Bostrychus microphthalmus Hoese & Kottelat, 2005

Family:  Butidae (Gudgeon gobies)
Max. size:  7.5 cm SL (male/unsexed)
Environment:  demersal; freshwater
Distribution:  Asia: Sulawesi, Indonesia.
Diagnosis:  Anal spines: 1-1; Anal soft rays: 9-10; Vertebrae: 29-30. Differs from other species of the genus by possessing reduced eyes covered with skin and reduced head canal development, body pigment and head squamation. Distinguished by the combination of the following characters: eye minute, covered with skin; vomer with a patch of teeth conical and short, with pointed tips, arranged in 5-6 rows in an inverted V; palatine without teeth; head pores present, lateral canal tube above operculum and preoperculum reduced, absent or confined to a short detached tube above preoperculum and/or a short tube above operculum; predorsal scales cycloid, reaching forward to near anterior end of snout; operculum with small embedded cycloid scales; side of head covered with embedded scales, except for below and before anterior margin of eye; no scales on interoperculum or branchiostegal membranes; gill opening extending forward to below a point 2-3 eye diameters before posterior preopercular margin (to just before margin in one specimen); first dorsal-fin pterygiophore formula 4 (12211) in 2 or 3 (131111) in 2, last 2-3 pterygiophores without spines; vertebrae 14-15 + 15-16 = 29-30; body pale, with few melanophores along margins of scales on dorsal surface of body (Ref. 55841). Description: First dorsal fin spines 5, 6; second dorsal fin I,10-12 (Ref. 55841).
Biology:  Inhabits caves, usually in backwaters where it lies on clay bottom (Ref. 55841).
IUCN Red List Status: Not Evaluated (N.E.) Ref. (130435)
Threat to humans:  harmless


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