fath. (119-238 m.)— than do the Atlantic 

 species— 85 to 260 fath. (156-476 m.). Of the 

 Atlantic species, S. berryi has been found in 

 deeper waters— 120 to 260 fath. (220-476 m.)— 

 than has 5. octoactinus — 85 to 160 fath. (156- 

 293 m.). 



When habitats suitable for Symphysanodon 

 have been more extensively explored in the 

 Pacific, Indian Ocean, and eastern Atlantic, more 

 secure foundations for developing explanations 

 for the patterns of distribution of the species 

 of the genus will be available. However, from 

 the accessible data, it seems that the genus may 

 have evolved in the central western Pacific and 

 spread northward to colonize the area off Japan 

 and eastward to the Hawaiian Islands. If Sym- 

 physanodon arose in the western Pacific and 

 spread to the central Pacific, two routes for in- 

 vading the western Atlantic would have been 

 available — one from the western Pacific via the 

 Indian Ocean and eastern Atlantic and the other 

 from the central Pacific via the eastern Pacific. 

 The route via the eastern Pacific would have 

 been shorter and less encumbered by land as a 

 barrier. 



On the basis of our fragmentary knowledge of 

 Symphysanodon, it seems that the wide-ranging 

 species, S. typus, may resemble the progenitor 

 of the contemporary species of the genus more 

 closely than do any of the other modem species 

 and that some (perhaps all) of the modern 

 species may be derivatives of a typtLs-Wke an- 

 cestor. Descent from a typtis-\\ke predecessor 

 seems to have been the case for S. maunaloae and 

 perhaps also for S. katayamai. 



The geographically well-separated species S. 

 typus (western and central Pacific) and S. 

 berryi (western Atlantic) are the most diflflcult 

 to separate when morphological characters are 

 used. Their similar morphology might be the 

 result of parallelism (or convergence) within 

 the genus or of slight divergence from a rather 

 recent common ancestor. If S. typus and S. 

 berryi have diverged comparatively recently, the 

 more likely route for colonization of the western 

 Atlantic by Symphysanodon would have been via 

 the eastern Pacific. 



ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 



Frederick H. Berry (TABL), William A. Gos- 



line (UH), Masao Katayama (YU), Ernest A. 

 Lachner (USNM), Werner Ladiges (ZSZM), 

 John E. Randall (BPBM), C. Richard Robins 

 (UMML), Richard S. Shomura (HBL), Paul J. 

 Struhsaker (UH), Gerald W. Wadley (UW), 

 Alwyne C. Wheeler (BMNH), and Loren P. 

 Woods (FMNH) allowed me to examine speci- 

 mens in their care or furnished important in- 

 formation. Travel to other institutions was sup- 

 ported by grants from the University of Chat- 

 tanooga through the kindness of William H. 

 Masterson, President. I did part of this research 

 in the summer of 1967 while a participant in 

 the National Science Foundation College 

 Teacher Research Participation Program run 

 jointly by TABL and UMML. Richard J. Daly 

 (TABL), Thomas H. Eraser (UMML), Richard 

 H. Goodyear (USNM), Herbert R. Gordy and 

 Elmer J. Gutherz (BLBG), Edgar N. Gramblin 

 (USNM), and Jon C. Staiger (UMML) made 

 the radiographs used in this study or supplied 

 other assistance. The illustration for figure 1 

 is by Grady W. Reinert (TABL). Herbert R. 

 Gordy provided figs. 4 and 5 ; Elmer J. Gutherz, 

 fig. 2; and Tomio Iwamoto (TABL), fig. 3. 

 Eleanor Y. Waters (BLBG) secured a great 

 portion of the literature consulted in this work. 

 William W. Anderson (BLBG), Frederick H. 

 Berry, John R. Freeman ( University of Tennes- 

 see at Chattanooga), Jack W. Gehringer 

 (BLBG), Elmer J. Gutherz, George C. Miller 

 (TABL), C. Richard Robins, and Loren P. 

 Woods read the manuscript and offered sugges- 

 tions for improving it. 



LITERATURE CITED 



Anderson, William D., Jr. 



1967. Field guide to the snappers (Lutjanids) of 



the western Atlantic. U.S. Fish Wildl. Serv., 



Circ. 252, iii + 14 pp., 29 figs. 

 Bleeker, Pieter. 



1878. Quatrieme memoire sur la faune ichthyol- 



ogique de la Nouvelle-Guinee. Arch. Neerl. Sci. 



Ex. Natur. 13: 35-66, pis. 2-3. [Author's un- 

 dated reprint, 32 pp., pis. 1-2.] 

 1880. Musei Hamburgensis species piscium novas 



minusque cognitas descripsit et depingi curavit. 



Abh. Naturwiss. Ver. Hamburg 7(1) : 25-30, pi. 5. 

 Fowler, Henry W. 



1925. Note on Propoma roseutn Gunther. Copeia 



1925(142) : 39-40. 

 1928. The fishes of Oceania. Mem. Bernice P. 



Bishop Mus. 10, iii + 540 pp., 82 figs., 49 pis. 



REVISION OF THE GENUS SYMPHYSANODON 



346 



