THE PACIFIC AMERICAN ATHERINID FISHES OF THE 

 GENERA EURYSTOLE, NECTARGES, COLEOTROPIS, AND 



MELJNORIIINUS 



(Plates 17-19) 



George S. Myers 



Natural History Museum of Stanford University 

 AND 



Charles B. ^VADE 



Research Assistant 



Allan Hancock Foundation 



The University of Southern California 





CONTENTS 



1. Introduction p. 113 



2. A systematic revision of the genera 



Eury stole 2Lnd Nectar ges p. 115 



3. A new genus for Alenidia starksi from Panama . . . p. 136 



4. The Pacific species of Melanorhinus p. 139 



5. Summary p. 141 



1. INTRODUCTION 



While working over the Atherinidae for a projected synoptic check 

 list of the marine fishes of the Pacific coast of South America, the authors 

 found it necessary to determine some small Atherinids obtained by the 

 senior author while night-fishing with a dip-net in the Galapagos during 

 the 1938 cruise of the Velero III, Captain Allan Hancock commanding. 

 These fishes appeared to belong to the genus Eurystole, long known 

 from the single species E. eriarcha, described in 1881 by Jordan and Gil- 

 bert from a single specimen taken by Dr. C. H. Gilbert at Mazatlan, 

 Sinaloa, Mexico. Eurystole has remained a rare genus in museum collec- 

 tions. The second specimen was reported from Mazatlan by Jordan in 

 1895, and of the genus only these two individuals and a few other 

 examples from Lower California, the Galapagos, Colombia, and Peru 

 have been recorded. 



[113] 



