114 ALLAN HANCOCK PACIFIC EXPEDITIONS VOL. 9 



Our Galapagos specimens proved puzzling, and we were very much 

 pleased when Dr. Rolf L. Bolin, of the Hopkins Marine Station of Stan- 

 ford University, Pacific Grove, turned over to us the Eurystole-like 

 Atherinids he had obtained during the 1939 cruise of the California State 

 Division of Fish and Game Research Vessel A^. B. Scofield. These speci- 

 mens were most surprising. They represented two remarkably distinct 

 species, one with large scales and one with small, both agreeing fairly 

 well with current diagnoses of Eurystole eriarcha, but neither of them 

 identical with our Galapagos species. 



A key to the three species was prepared and forwarded to Dr. L. P. 

 Schultz of the U.S. National Museum for comparison with the holotype 

 of Eurystole eriarcha. Dr. Schultz has been so kind as to take measure- 

 ments and counts of the holotype and to determine that this specimen 

 definitely agrees with our key diagnosis of the large-scaled species. He 

 also sent us for identification a series of specimens obtained by Dr. Waldo 

 L. Schmitt in Ecuador and Peru, which turned out to be a third new 

 form, and has loaned us a fine paratype of Menidia starksi Meek and 

 Hildebrand, which, from the description and figure, we had suspected 

 might be related to Eurystole. We are indebted also to Mr. H. Walton 

 Clark of the California Academy of Sciences, who has allowed us to 

 examine the extensive series of Eurystole eriarcha in the Academy's col- 

 lections, mostly collected by Mr. Clark and others aboard Mr. Temple- 

 ton Crocker's yacht Zaca. 



Menidia starksi proves to be only very superficially similar to Eurys- 

 tole, being related rather to the Atherinid group typified by Melaniris 

 {=Thyrina, preoccupied), in which it forms a very distinct new genus. 

 On the other hand, our four species of "Eurystole" seem to represent at 

 least two genera, Eurystole, a large-scaled form with one species, and a 

 new, small-scaled genus comprising three new species. That this dis- 

 tinctive genus and its three new species have remained totally unrecog- 

 nized and unknown to the present day is most remarkable. 



Both Eurystole and its relative, Nectarges, appear to be surface fishes 

 of open water close to shore, or inhabitants of the surf on sandy beaches, 

 and the species are undoubtedly abundant, judging from the rather large 

 series of the two Central American species we have at hand. Nearly all 

 of our specimens were collected at night by fishing with dip-nets under 

 lights rigged over the sides of ships at anchor. 



It may be mentioned that this method of nocturnal surface collecting, 

 carried on inshore or adrift over deep water in calm weather, has pro- 



t' I 



