SYSTEMATICS AND BIOLOGY OF THE BONEFISH, 

 ALBULA NEMOPTERA (FOWLER)' 



By Luis R. Rivas - and Stanley M. Warlen,' Fishery Biologists 

 Bureau of Commercial Fisheries Exploratory Fishing Base, Pascagoula, Miss. 39567 



ABSTRACT 



This study is a review of the taxonomic status of the 

 bonefish, Albula nemoptera, formerly placed in the genus 

 Dixonina. Reasons for synonymizing Dixonina with Albula 

 are discussed, and it is shown that pacifica is conspecific 

 with nemoptera. The Atlantic and Pacific populations of 



nemoptera are compared with each other and with the 

 common bonefish, A. vulpes. Presumed larval and juvenile 

 stages of nemoptera are described and compared with those 

 of vulpes. The ecology and distribution of nemoptera and 

 vulpes is discussed. 



Prior to 1911 the family Albulidae wag 

 known from several fossil forms and one living 

 species, Albula vulpes (Linnaeus). Fowler 

 (1911) described the second living species, 

 Dixonina nemoptera, from a single specimen 

 from Hispaniola. Eight years later a second 

 specimen was recorded by Metzelaar (1919) 

 from Venezuela and a third, from the Pacific 

 coast of Mexico, by Myers (1936). A drawing 

 of a specimen from the Pacific coast of Mexico 

 identified as "Albula vulpes," was published by 

 Kumada and Hiyama (1937). According to 

 Walford (1939), apparently several specimens 

 were available to these authors. Beebe (1942), 

 on the basis of 19 specimens from Costa Rica, 

 proposed the name "Dixoyiina pacifica" for the 

 Pacific coast population. The third Atlantic 

 record (Rivas, 1952) was based on two speci- 

 mens from Jamaica. Recently Caldwell and 

 Caldwell (1964) recorded, tentatively as 

 "Albula vulpes," 14 larvae and juveniles from 

 the Atlantic coast of Panama. 



According to the literature, therefore, this 

 apparently rare species of albulid was hitherto 

 known only from four Atlantic records (7 lar- 

 vae, 6 juveniles, and 4 adults) and the three 

 Pacific records (21 specimens of which 14 are 

 not traceable). 



> Contribution No. 65 from the Ichthyological Laboratory and 

 Museum, Department of Biology, University of Miami. 



2 Permanent address: University of Miami, Department of 

 Biology. 



" Present address : BCF Biological Laboratory, Beaufort. N.C. 



FISHERY BULLETIN: VOLUME 66, NO. 2 



Published May 1967. 



During its cruise No. 92, May 5 thro"gh 

 June 17, 1964, the Bureau of Commercial Fish- 

 eries exploratory fishing vessel Oregon col- 

 lected 21 adult specimens of Albula nemoptera 

 along the Atlantic coast of Colombia. Nineteen 

 of these are available for the present study 

 (see materials and acknowledgments) ; one 

 was deposited at the Santa Marta Marine 

 Laboratory, Santa Marta, Colombia, and an- 

 other at the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries 

 Tropical Atlantic Biological Laboratory in 

 Miami, Fla. 



Additional specimens from the Atlantic and 

 Pacific, not previously reported in the litera- 

 ture, were located in various institutions. 



The fairly adequate material of A. nemop- 

 tera, now at hand, prompted this study, par- 

 ticularly because the most recent account of the 

 species was based on a single specimen (Hilde- 

 brand, 1963) and the conclusions reached 

 therein are open to question (Berry, 1964). In 

 due fairness to the late S. F. Hildebrand, how- 

 ever, it should be remembered that his study 

 was published 14 years after his death in 1949. 



We performed this research at the Bureau of 

 Commercial Fisheries Exploratory Fishing 

 and Gear Research Base, Pascagoula, Miss. 



MATERIALS 



This paper is based on 56 specimens (35 

 Atlantic; 21 Pacific) of A. nemoptera and 43 

 Atlantic specimens of A. vulpes from the 



251 



