Cortez garden eel
Heteroconger digueti (Pellegrin, 1923)
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The pale green eel (Heteroconger digueti), also known as the pale garden eel or the Cortez garden eel, is an eel in the family Congridae (conger/garden eels). It was described by Jacques Pellegrin in 1923, originally under the genus Taenioconger. It is a nonmigratory marine, deepwater-dwelling eel which is known from the eastern central Pacific Ocean, including the Gulf of California and Mexico. It dwells at a depth of 230 to 275 m (755 to 902 ft) and inhabits sandy sediments near reefs in large colonies. Males can reach a maximum total length of 63 cm (25 in; 2.07 ft).
The pale green eel's diet consists of zooplankton. Despite its restricted range, the IUCN redlist currently lists the species as Least Concern due to its common local occurrence, and the lack of known major threats.
Wikipedia contributors, Pale green eel; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:11:24.037977+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Heteroconger digueti (Pellegrin, 1923)
- Name authority
- (Pellegrin, 1923)
- Common name
- Cortez garden eel
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Teleostei
- Order
- Anguilliformes
- Family
- Congridae
- Genus
- Heteroconger
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Source habitat flags: Marine: yes · Freshwater: no · Terrestrial: no. These do not form a complete habitat description.
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- gigaclassActinopterygii
- superclassActinopteri
- classTeleostei
- orderAnguilliformes
- familyCongridae Kaup, 1856
- subfamilyHeterocongrinae Günther, 1870
- genusHeteroconger Bleeker, 1868
- speciesHeteroconger digueti (Pellegrin, 1923)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Heteroconger. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Heteroconger cobra Böhlke & Randall, 1981 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger congroides (D'Ancona, 1928) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger enigmaticus Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger hassi (Klausewitz & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger klausewitzi (Eibl-Eibesfeldt & Köster, 1983) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger lentiginosus Böhlke & Randall, 1981 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger obscurus (Klausewitz & Eibl-Eibesfeldt, 1959) | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| speckled garden eelHeteroconger pellegrini Castle, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger tomberua Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger balteatus Castle & Randall, 1999 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger mercyae Allen & Erdmann, 2009 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Heteroconger fugax Koeda, Fujii & Motomura, 2018 | CongridaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Taenioconger digueti Pellegrin, 1923 Pellegrin, 1923 | synonym |
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.php?p=taxdetails&id=271778 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3L8RL. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.