224 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OP 



The limits of those genera, it may not be unnecessary to remark, were in- 

 tended to include the same species referred to Bleeker's genera, founded on 

 the same types. Xirichthys embracing X. novacula, Cuv., X. argentimaculata 

 Steind., {Nov.) Javanica Blkr., X. cyanifrons C.V., X. martinicensis C.V., X. 

 uniocellata C. V., X. lineata C. V. and X. mundiceps GiU. Iniistius includes only 

 the /. pavo, 1. (Nov.) tetrazona ex Blkr., /. mundicorpus Gill, /. (Xir.) dea ex T. S. 

 and /. (Nov.) aneitensis ex Gthr. To Novacula are referrible the N. pentadactyla, 

 N.panctulata, N. Tivistii, N. melanopus and N. spilonotus, and probably N. bima- 

 culata ex Riipp. The genus Iniistius would not include the Novaeulichthys 

 callosoma of Bleeker, but at the same time I would not have included it in 

 Novaeulichthys as it differs not only in the notch between its two produced an- 

 terior rays and the third, but also in the still more anterior insertion of the 

 ventral fins ; it may be called Dimalacocentrus callosoma. 



Genus XYRICHTHYS Cuvier, 1815. 



Novacula Bleeker, 1862, (nee C. V.) Cuv. R. A. ii. p. 265, 1817. 



The genus " Xyrichthys " was especially established upon the Coryphsena 

 novacula of Linnaeus, by Cuvier, in his Memoir on the Fishes of the Mediter- 

 anean.* The name must consequently be retained for the genus of which that 

 is the type. 



Xyrichthys mundiceps Gill. 



Xirichthys mundiceps Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, p. 143. 

 Novacula mundiceps Gunther, Oat. iv. p. 172. 

 Hab. Cape St. Lucas, 



Genus INIISTIUS Gill. 



Xirichthys Bleeker (nee Cuv. 1815.) 



The genus was first recognized by Dr. Bleeker, as now limited, slightly before 

 it was named by the present author, but that gentleman has given to it a name 

 which was originally applied to an allied genus for which it should apparently 

 be retained. 



Iniistius mundicorpus Gill. 

 Iniistius mundicorpus Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862, p. 145. 

 Novacula mundicorpus Gthr., Cat. iv. p. 176. 



Hab. Cape St. Lucas. 



Synopsis of the family of LEPTUROIDS, and Description of a remarkable new 



generic type. 



BY THEODORE GILL. 



My valued correspondent, M. Felipe Poey, of the University of Havana, in 

 a recent transmission of specimens of natural history to the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution, forwarded a most interesting fish belonging to the family of Leptu- 

 roids, and evidently most closely related to the genus Lepidopus. That gen- 

 tleman, in a previous letter, had drawn my attention to it, and desired me to 

 describe it. This request, so much in accordance with my own inclinations, 

 is now responded to, and, at the same time, in order to illustrate its affinities 

 and differential characters, the diagnoses of the previously known genera of 

 Lepturirxe and Lppidopodints are submitted. 



Family LEPTUROIDS Gill. 



Synonymy. 

 Trichiurini Rajinesque, Indice d'lttiologia Siciliana, p. 37, 1810. 



* Memoires du Mus. d'Hist. Nat., i. pp. 324, 329, 1815. 



[Sept. 



