NO. 4 MYERS AND WADE : NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF EELS 87 



Fowler (1936, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., vol. 70) has shown 

 very definitely that Bleeker (1863, Natuurkundige Verhandelingen van 

 de Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem, ser. 2, 

 vol. 18, p. 130) was the first to designate a type species for Gymnothorax, 

 and that he designated G. catenata Bloch, which is a species of Echidna 

 Forster, 1777. The name Gymnothorax thus disappears from the system. 

 Fowler also shows good reasons, based on a proper appreciation of "first 

 type designations," for applying the name Muraena Linnaeus, 1758, to 

 the genus commonly known as Anguilla. Under Fowler's arrangement, 

 Anguilla auctorum becomes Muraena, Muraena auctorum becomes Mu- 

 renoph'is, and Gymnothorax auctorum becomes Lycodontis. 



The utter confusion which these shifts would introduce into the no- 

 menclature of several of the commonest genera and best-known families 

 of eels is patent, and anything that can be done to save the old and univer- 

 sally accepted usage is to be commended. However, no especial action 

 seems needed at the present time, owing to several things entirely over- 

 looked by Mr. Fowler. 



The International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature, in 

 Opinion 93 (cited above in synonymy) has shown that Gymnothorax was 

 originally merely a substitute name for Muraena Linnaeus, 1758, and 

 therefore, under the Rules, automatically takes as type the same type as 

 Muraena, namely, M. helena Linnaeus, 1758. However, since this would 

 evidently cause confusion in established nomenclature, the Commission 

 has, under suspension of the Rules, placed Gymnothorax in the Interna- 

 tional Official List of Generic Names, with G. reticularis Bloch, 1795, 

 as its type. 



Moreover, in Opinion 77 (1922, Smithsonian Misc. Coll., vol. 73, 

 no. 1, p. 71 ) , the Commission has placed Muraena, type M. helena, in the 

 Official List. This timely action saves the well-known genus Anguilla in 

 its universally accepted sense, and negates the confusion that Fowler 

 would so rashly introduce into the literature. 



Key to Eastern Tropical Pacific Species 



la. Body color brown, either plain or marked with darker, never with 

 yellowish or whitish. 

 2a. Body color uniform brown. 



3a. Outer series of teeth thickened, bent abitiptly backward at tips, 

 the posterior concave margin distinctly serrate; lower jaw bent 



