Author: Springer, 1966
Field Marks:
A Schroederichthys with extremely slender body and white spots only.
Diagnostic Features:
Trunk and tail extremely elongated in adults. Snout more broadly rounded; anterior nasal flaps broad and triangular; mouth relatively broad and wide. Colour pattern of 6 to 9 light brown saddles on back and tail, usually absent in adults, on tan to light grey dorsal surface, with numerous white spots scattered on dorsolateral surface and not bordering the saddles. Adults small, to about 35 cm.
Geographical Distribution:
Western North Atlantic: Honduras and Nicaragua.
Habitat and Biology:
A little-known deepwater tropical bottom catshark of the outer shelf and upper slope of Atlantic Central America, found at 190 to 410 m depth. It is thought to prefer bottom with fine white calcareous material. Oviparous, probably laying one egg per oviduct. Feeds on small bony fishes and cephalopods, with algae found in one specimen.
Size:
Maximum 34 cm, adult males 28 to 33 cm, adult female 34 cm.
Interest to Fisheries:
None at present.
Remarks:
Springer (1979) noted that the attenuate proportions of adults of this species are very similar to those of its young. In contrast, the adults of the other three species of Schroederichthys are only moderately slender as adults, but the young at least of S. tenuis and S. bivius resemble all sizes of S. maculatus. This suggests that the present species is a pedomorphic dwarf, that has retained a juvenile morphology but becomes adult at a much smaller size than other Schroederichthys.
Type material:
Holotype. U.S. National Museum of Natural History, USNM-l85556, 328 mm, adult male. Type Locality: Caribbean Sea NNW of Cape Gracias a Dios, Honduras, 16°39'N, 82°29'W, about 410 m depth.