798 



Fishery Bulletin 88(4), 1990 



chial pores, which, aside from color, is an important 

 character separating the two species. 



Lockington did not designate his specimen as a 

 holotype or state that it was deposited anywhere. If 

 deposited, the most lii^ely place would have been the 

 California Academy of Sciences. W.E. Eschmeyer 

 (Calif. Acad. Sci., San Francisco, pers. commun.) has 

 informed us that Lockington's specimen is not now at 

 the Academy, and stated that it and any record of it 

 may have been destroyed in the San Francisco earth- 

 quake and fire. 



Therefore, in view of the possible confusion of E. 

 sfuutii with E. mcconnnugheyi, especially off southern 

 California, we designate as neotype of Eptatretus 

 stoutii, SI068-426, a male, 530 mm TL, taken near the 

 whistler buoy at entrance of Humboldt Bay, Califor- 

 nia. This locality is about 8 miles northerly from the 

 mouth of Eel River, the type locality of Lockington's 

 Bdellosfoma stoutii. 



Discussion 



The relationship of the five species treated above super- 

 ficially appear to be close. We are aware of the spec- 

 ulative and debatable nature of intraspecific variation, 

 and that any proposed new species may be considered 

 a variant of a similar-appearing, sympatric known 

 species. 



Thus, it may be argued that E. deani and E. fritzi 

 are mere variants, due primarily to their very dark 

 coloration, much darker than in any of the other species 

 treated, and due perhaps to their sympatric occurrence 

 in the presently restricted range of E. fritzi near Gua- 

 dalupe Island, Mexico. However, the virtually non- 

 overlapping numbers of prebranchial slime pores, 

 7(4-10) in E. deani vs. 12-13(10-15) in E. fritzi (Table 

 2), alone are adequate for specific separation. In addi- 

 tion, the very large barbels oi E. fritzi do not occur 

 in E. dean i (Table 6) of sympatric occurrence or in any 

 portion of the nearly 2600 miles of its total range. 



The superficial similarity of £". stoutii and the sym- 

 patric E. mcconnaughtyi also invites speculation as 

 to being mere variants. However, the notable and 

 non-overlapping difference in respective prebranchial 

 lengths alone distinguishes between the two species 

 (Table 1). Also, the numbers of prebranchial slime pores 

 differ significantly, with minor overlap (Table 2). 



Similary, E. stoutii and E. sinus are alike in most 

 counts and proportions, but the very prominent ven- 

 tral finfold of E. stoutii does not occur in E. sinus, 

 where it is absent or vestigial. Also, when fresh 

 material of each is compared, the much darker reddish- 

 brown of E. sinus contrasts sharply with the much 

 lighter gray-reddish brown of E. stoutii. 



All the above principal characters differentiating the 

 five species are constant, often non-overlapping, and 

 show little or no variation within species. 



Acknowledgments 



We are most grateful to Carl L. Hubbs for instigating 

 a review of the Myxinidae of the world, and for his 

 efforts (liegun in 1965) in amassing a voluminous study 

 material. Without his early efforts, this and our pre- 

 vious studies would not have been possible. We are 

 most grateful to the various assistants and graduate 

 students working under Hubbs' supervision for their 

 efforts in counting and measuring and general accum- 

 ulation of data used herein. Alan J. Stover and Ronald 

 R. McConnaughey deserve our great thanks for devel- 

 opment of gear, and their many hours at sea, involved 

 in the capture of specimens. Especial thanks are due 

 to David Jensen for contributing data uu thousands of 

 E. stoutii captured during his investigations on the 

 unique cardiovascular system of hagfishes. Also, we 

 thank Richard H. Rosenblatt for critically reading the 

 manuscript. 



Citations 



Anonymous 



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Adam, H., and K. Strahan 



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