26. Ophiocara porocephala (Valenciennes, 1837) ―Spangled Gudgeon, Northern Mud Gudgeon― Native

Taxonomy. Original description: Eleotris porocephala Valenciennes, 1837:237 [ Seychelles. Lectotype: MNHN 2020-0477 [ex MNHN IC-A-1573]] . Synonyms: Eleotris porocephala Valenciennes, 1837; Eleotris ophicephalus Valenciennes, 1837; Eleotris madagascariensis Valenciennes, 1837; Eleotris viridis Bleeker, 1849; Eleotris kuak Montrouzier, 1857 .

Status in the Arabian Peninsula. First record from Oman by Esmaeili et al. (2022).

General distribution. Indian Ocean: South Africa, East Africa, Seychelles, Madagascar and western Mascarenes east western Sumatra, southern Java and southern Bali (Indonesia). Habitat: freshwater, brackish, marine. Occurs in mangroves and shallow estuaries and enters freshwater (Larson 2022; Fricke et al. 2023).

Distribution in the Arabian Peninsula. Oman: Janouf, Dhofar Governorate (Esmaeili et al. 2022). It probably occurs in mangroves and shallow estuaries and freshwaters in other area of the Arabian Peninsula.

Economic importance. No commercial importance.

Conservation. Least Concern (LC).

Remarks. Kottelat (2013: 394) used the combination Ophiocara ophicephalus recognizing as first reviser Günther (1861: 107) who gave precedence to ophicephalus over porocephala . Treated as O. porocephala by Larson et al. (2017) and by an overwhelming number of ichthyologists in recent and past literature. The taxonomy of this species has never been reviewed and it may represent more than one species (see Parenti 2021).