elegans, Gymnothorax Bliss [R.] 1883:60 [Transactions of the Royal Society of Arts and Sciences of Mauritius (N. S.) v. 13; ref. 16966] Mauritius, Mascarenes, southwestern Indian Ocean. Holotype (unique): MCZ 5954. Type catalog: Böhlke & Smith 2002:107-108 [ref. 26380]. •Valid as Gymnothorax elegans Bliss 1883 -- (Castle & McCosker 1986:169 [ref. 5645], Randall et al. 1993:227 [ref. 21003], Goren & Dor 1994:7 [ref. 25356], Quéro & Saldanha 1995:66 [ref. 22017], Randall & Golani 1995:857 [ref. 21744], Myers 1999:46 [ref. 23965], Fricke 1999:44 [ref. 24106], Böhlke et al. 1999:1656 [ref. 24692], Böhlke & Randall 2000:233 [ref. 24493], Nakabo 2000:207 [ref. 25086], Nakabo 2002:207 [ref. 26001], Randall et al. 2002:154 [ref. 26192], Böhlke & Smith 2002:108 [ref. 26380], Myers & Donaldson 2003:611 [ref. 27495], Shinohara et al. 2005:399 [ref. 28370], Mundy 2005:118 [ref. 28379], Randall 2007:86 [ref. 30952], Fricke et al. 2009:15 [ref. 30213], Smith 2012:14 [ref. 32155], Ho et al. 2015:155 [ref. 34130], Fricke et al. 2018:35 [ref. 35805], Golani & Fricke 2018:21 [ref. 36273], Smith et al. 2019:25 [ref. 37159], Smith & Böhlke 2022:49 [ref. 39681], Fricke et al. 2024:80 [ref. 41255]). Current status: Valid as Gymnothorax elegans Bliss 1883. Muraenidae: Muraeninae. Distribution: Red Sea; Indo-West Pacific: KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa), East Africa, Madagascar and western Mascarenes (La Réunion, Mauritius) east to Hawaiian Islands (U.S.A.) and Society Islands (French Polynesia), north to Ogasawara Islands (Japan), south to Samoa. Habitat: marine.