No. 4. — Ncio Species of Apodal Fishes. 

 By Alvin Seale. 



Recently while preparing a catalogue of the apodal fishes in the 

 ]\Iuseum of Comparative Zoology it was my privilege to critically 

 study, measure, and tabulate the proportions of more than one 

 thousand apodal fishes. 



Among this series were 459 specimens of Anguilla from all parts of 

 the known range of the Anguillidae. A study of the measurements of 

 these eels revealed the fact that certain ones, M. C. Z. 9162 from the 

 West Indies and M. C. Z. 22,440 (four specimens) from Panama, did 

 not differ in the slightest degree from Anguilla vulgaris Turton of 

 Europe, while all other American specimens were undoubted Ayiguilla 

 rostratiis Lesueur. This would indicate that the European and the 

 American species of Anguilla intermingle, and perhaps interbreed 

 on their southern range. 



Descriptions of sixteen new species and one new genus are herewith 

 presented. \ 



MYRIDAE. 



MURAENICHTHYS L.\BIALIS, sp. nOV. 



There are two specimens of Muraenichthys M. C. Z. 29,500 (A) and 

 (B) from the Marshall Islands which were identified as M. macrop- 

 terns Bleeker by Kendall and Goldsborough (Mem. M. C. Z., 1911, 26, 

 p. 245). But in Bleeker's type of M. macropferus, the jaws are of 

 equal length, the anterior nostrils are not abnormally large, and the 

 origin of the dorsal fin much nearer the anal than to the tip of the 

 snout, while in these specimens, the lower jaw is only about half as 

 long as the upper, the snout being prolonged, and the nostrils abnor- 

 mally large resembling two large curved fangs hanging down from the 

 upper lips. The origin of the dorsal is more than a third nearer the 

 tip of the snout than to the origin of the anal. 



A detailed description of the largest of these specimens M. C. Z. 

 29,500 (A), the type of M. lahialis, is as follows: — Body slim, more or 



