SCORPAEXIDAE 



123 



Hob. Patagonian-Falklands region; Straits of Magellan; coast of Chile. 



In addition to the above, there are 5 specimens (220-320 mm.) in the British Museum 

 collection from the Straits of Magellan, Fortune Bay, Messier Channel and Tambo 

 River. 



Sebastodes chilensis, Steindachner, of which there are 4 specimens (225-340 mm.) in 

 the British Museum, is doubtfully distinct from S. oculahis. The shape of the spinous 

 dorsal fin appears to be a little different, however, the longest spines being 3 to 3$ in 

 the length of the head. In the two larger specimens the coloration is considerably 

 darker, but careful examination reveals the presence of traces of the characteristic pale 

 spots, which are quite clear in the two smaller examples. I have not seen specimens 

 of S. darwini, Cramer, from Chile and Peru, but this species is very closely related to 

 the above. 



Fig. 67. Sebastodes oculatus. x \. 



Steindachner (1881) regarded S. oculatus as identical with the earlier described 

 S. capensis (Gmelin), and there is no doubt that the two forms are barely separable. 

 I have examined 8 specimens of S. capensis from South Africa, Tristan da Cunha, and 

 Gough Island, and find that the only reliable difference between these and the examples 

 from the Magellan region lies in the shape of the spinous dorsal fin. In the Cape 

 species the third to fifth spines appear to be the longest, the length being 3^ to nearly 4 

 in that of head. 



In recent years American authors have tended to divide the large genus, Sebastodes, 

 which contains a number of species from the coasts of California, Alaska and Japan, 

 as well as a few from the Pacific coast of South America, into a number of genera. The 

 differences between these, however, are slight and not always constant, and I have 

 preferred to use the name Sebastodes in the wider sense of Jordan and Evermann (1898). 

 Barnard has placed the species from South Africa, originally described as Scorpaena 

 capensis, in the genus Sebastichthys, Gill, pointing out that this is closely allied to 



Sebastodes, differing in the short gill-rakers and narrow, concave interorbital space. 



16-2 



