FITCH and BARKER: FISH FAMILY MORIDAE 



Garman (1899) described P. longipes from 

 Panama and noted that it can be "distinguished 

 from Phyclculus [slc'\ nematopus Gilb., by a 

 greater number of rays in the dorsal and a smal- 

 ler number in the ventrals," but the dorsal and 

 ventral ray counts that he gave for P. longipes 

 (D.IO + 55-63; V.6) are identical to counts we 

 made on P. nematopus. We examined a radio- 

 graph of one of Carman's types of P. longipes 

 (USNM 57876) and were unable to find any 

 character to distinguish it from P. nematopus. 

 We therefore relegate P. longipes into the synon- 

 ymy of P. nematopus. 



We examined material from the following lo- 

 calities: Gulf of California: 18.5 km SE of San 

 Felipe, Feb. 1949, UCLA W49-91, 1 spec; lat 

 30°26.3'N, long 114°12.1'W, 19 Jan. 1968, 76- 

 86 m, SI068-92, 20 specs.; lat 30°20'N, long 

 114°10'W, 19 Jan. 1968, 148-225 m, SI068-93, 

 106 specs.; lat 29°54'N, long 113°03.2'W, 30 

 Mar. 1960, 110 m, SIO60-119, 6 specs.; lat 29° 

 19.9'N, long 113°10.4'W, 19 Jan. 1968, 265- 

 283 m, SI068-94, 90 specs.; lat 23°51'N, long 

 107°33'W, 137 m, SI059-264, 1 spec; lat 23° 

 50.5'N, long 107°18.2'W, 77-88 m, SI059-263, 2 

 specs. Costa Rica: off Punta Quepos, Puntare- 

 nas, 16 July 1969, LACM 30721-3, 1 spec; ±9 

 km off Cape Velas, 7 May 1963, UCLA W63-142, 

 3 specs.; near Puntarenas, UCR 490, 3 specs.; 

 18.5 km SW of Isla Canos, 143 m, 15 July 1969, 

 UCR 328-6, 6 specs. Panama: USNM 57876, 

 1 spec, paratype of P. longipes. 



Physiculus rastrelliger Gilbert, 1890 



D. 8-11, 52-62; A. 56-63; C. 27-32; P. 24-28; 

 P2. 7; Br. 7; rakers on first gill-arch 7-9 + 18-22 

 = 26-30; posterior rakers on first gill-arch 4-6 

 + 14-20 = 18-24; vertebrae including hypural 

 12-14 -V 40-42 = 52-55. 



There are no teeth on the vomer and palatines; 

 those in the jaws are villiform and in bands. 

 An elongate black fossa, reportedly a luminous 

 organ, lies on the midline of the belly about op- 

 posite the posteriormost base of the pelvic fins; 

 it is two or three times as long as wide. The chin 

 and throat region are naked, or at most a few 

 scattered embedded scales are present. The dor- 



sal and anal fins terminate adjacent to the eighth 

 from last vertebra, including the hypural; the 

 caudal rays commence adjacent to the fifth from 

 last vertebra. 



Morphometric data are presented in Table 1. 



Jordan and Evermann (1898) designated the 

 specimen labeled USNM 48266 as the lectotype, 

 but did not give a locality of capture. Daniel M. 

 Cohen (personal communication) informs us 

 that USNM 48266 is a lot of seven specimens 

 from Albatross station 3045 and that these and 

 a single specimen (USNM 44281) from the same 

 station are both labeled as types. Albatross sta- 

 tion 3045 was at lat 26°24'N, long 113°49'W in 

 336.5 m (Townsend, 1901). Thus, the type lo- 

 cality is approximately southwest of Bahia de 

 Ballenas, Baja California. P. rastrelliger ranges 

 from 20.7 km WSW of the Mad River, Calif., 

 (lat 40°55'N, long 124°22.5'W) to the Gulf of 

 Panama (lat 07°12'20"N, long 80°55'W). It sel- 

 dom has been captured shallower than 183 m or 

 deeper than 366 m, but verified depths range 

 from 128 to 523 m. The largest individual we 

 have seen was 207 mm SL (225 mm TL). 



P. rastrelliger was originally described from 

 material dredged at Albatross stations 2987 and 

 3045, both off central Baja California. For some 

 unknown reason, but probably an error of omis- 

 sion (e.g., Baja), Goode and Bean (1895), in 

 recording this species, noted both of these sta- 

 tions as "off the southern coast of California." 

 That erroneous statement very likely caused 

 Jordan and Evermann (1898) to ascribe this 

 species to southern California. Not until 1923 

 however, was P. rastrelliger reported from Cal- 

 ifornia based upon material actually taken there 

 ( Fowler, 1923 ) . Reports subsequent to Fowler's 

 (Ulrey, 1929; Jordan, Evermann, and Clark, 

 1930; Barnhart, 1936) could have been based 

 upon any of the previous three, but probably did 

 not involve additional Californian captures. The 

 listing of P. rastrelliger by Fitch and Lavenberg 

 (1968) was based upon numerous Californian 

 captures of the species, not specified in detail. 



We have examined material from the follow- 

 ing localities: California: lat 40°55'N, long 

 124°22.5'W, 12 Nov. 1970, 143-146 m, N. B. Sco- 

 field 70S8-21, 1 spec; off Gaviota, Santa Barbara 

 Co., 6 Aug. 1967, 263 m, SBMNH 00229, 1 spec; 



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