1941 CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 237 



brown spots; sides of head, including side of snout, with bluish dots, extending 

 backward on ventrals, and tending to form cross streaks on upper part of the 

 broad membranous base; ground color of ventral itself brownish; anal brownish, 

 with small blue spots; pectoral pale gray, with dark crossbars; first dorsal largely 

 dusky, with a broad white margin; second dorsal and caudal mostly grayish with 

 darker markings tending to form crossbands, most noticeable when the fins are 

 folded. 



Dutch West Indies to Florida. S. F. H. 



Family PTEROPSARIDAE 



Bembrops Steindachner 



Bembrops Steindachner, Sitzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 74, 1876, p. 163 (B. catidi- 



macula Steindachner). 

 Hypsicometes Goode, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 3, 1880, p. 347 (H. gobioides Goode). 

 Bathypercis Alcock, Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, vol. 62, pt. 2, 1893, p. 177 (Bathypercis 



platyrhynchns Alcock = Bembrops caiidimacula Steindachner). 



Alcock appears to have been first to recognize the identity of the genera 

 Hypsicometes and Bembrops. His reduction, however, of the Atlantic species to 

 synonymy under B. caiidimacula Steindachner cannot be maintained, though 

 his identification of the Indian species with the Japanese species seems entirely 

 justified. W. H. L. 



Bembrops gobioides (Goode) 



Common south of Tortugas, between depths of 100 and a little more than 200 

 fathoms, only 1 specimen having been secured in shallower water. 



This species usually has D. VI-17%; A. i8 x /2- The type is no exception, al- 

 though originally described as having only 16 anal rays. At a length of 46 mm. to 

 base of caudal, it was still a rather delicate specimen, and it has lost many scales. 

 Examination of other specimens now available shows that the scale formula 

 usually is 4-65-6. Bembrops caiidimacula, by comparison, usually has 14% dorsal 

 and i5 1 /4 anal rays, and 50 scales in the lateral line, according to the original 

 descriptions and 3 specimens (U. S. Nat. Mus. no. 59647), from Kagoshima, 

 Japan. The two also differ decidedly in proportions. The head, measured to the 

 end of the opercular flap, in a specimen of B. gobioides 170 mm. standard length 

 is 52 mm. (2.8), the long diameter of the eye 14 mm. (3.7 in head). In one of the 

 Japanese specimens, the corresponding measurements are: Total length 134 mm., 

 standard length 109 mm., length of head 44 mm. (2.5), long diameter of eye 10 

 mm. (4.4 in head). 



Seven in a lot of 73, taken in 205 to 221 fathoms, had recognizable food in their 

 stomachs. In 6 of the 7, the food consisted of a specimen or specimens of Chlor- 

 ophthalmus chalybeius, which according to this and other records seems to fall 

 prey to Bembrops very frequently. 



From rather deep water in the Gulf Stream from Tortugas, Florida, north- 

 ward. W. H. L. 



