TWO NEW GENERA AND FIVE NEW SPECIES 

 OF APODAL FISHES FROM THE EASTERN PACIFIC 



(Plates 24-28) 

 Charles B. Wade 



Allan Hancock Foundation 

 The University of Southern California 



Among the Apodal fishes collected by the extensive dredging opera- 

 tions of the Hancock Pacific Expeditions, and now in the collections of 

 the Allan Hancock Foundation at The University of Southern California, 

 are specimens which represent several new genera and species of this 

 interesting order. The family Congridae is represented by a new genus 

 and species, Thyreoconger hemiaspidus, and two new species, Chiloconger 

 similis and Rhynchocymba cataline?tsis. A new genus and species of the 

 family Echelidae, Pseudomyrophis micropinna, is described, as is also a 

 new species of Heterocongrid, Taenioconger herrei. 



The author wishes to express his appreciation to Dr. George S. 

 Myers, Dr. Albert W. Herre, and Miss Margaret Storey, all of the 

 Natural History Museum of Stanford University, for their assistance and 

 for the use of the library and comparative material of the Museum. The 

 plates were prepared by Mr. Anker Petersen, staff artist, of the Allan 

 Hancock Foundation. 



Family Gongridae 



Prior to Reid's (1934) revision of the available Congrid material in 

 the collections of the U.S. National Museum, several investigators had 

 attempted to clarify the systematic confusion surrounding this interesting 

 and little-known family. In 1898, after studying the forms introduced 

 between 1870 and 1898, as well as the material included in the Catalogue 

 of Fishes (Giinther, 1870), Ogilby introduced several new generic defini- 

 tions based primarily upon the presence of acicular or granular teeth, the 

 position of the vent, the dorsal origin, and other proportional measure- 

 ments. Since Parr (1932, p. 21) has already completely analyzed 

 Ogilby 's work, it need not be discussed further here. 



In 1925 Jordan and Hubbs revised the Japanese Congrids and intro- 

 duced a system of classification based principally upon tooth characters. 

 Since only Japanese forms were considered, several large and important 

 genera were necessarily omitted, and therefore it is doubted by Parr 

 (1932, p. 24) that their work could meet the test of universal application. 

 Although a great improvement over Ogilby 's work, the characters used 



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