Abstract.— The only cosmopoli- 

 tan sciaenid genus, Umbrina. is rep- 

 resented in the eastern Pacific Ocean 

 by eight species: U. analis, U. bus- 

 singi, U. dorsalis, U. galapagorum, 

 U. reedi, U. roncador, U. winter- 

 steeni n. sp., and U. xayiti. Umbrina 

 analis is removed from the synon- 

 ymy of U. xayiti. Lectotjrpes are 

 designated for U. dorsalis, U. gala- 

 pagorum and U. xanti. Umbrina 

 wintersteeni, which usually occurs in 

 shallow, protected waters of the 

 southern Gulf of California and the 

 west coast of southern Baja Califor- 

 nia Sur, apparently is morphological- 

 ly intermediate between two major 

 groups of eastern Pacific species. 

 Distinguishing characters of U. win- 

 tersteeni include peritoneum and in- 

 side gill cover with little or no pig- 

 ment; barbel relatively short and 

 stout; anal fin with six soft rays; anal 

 fin darkly pigmented to dusky; pelvic 

 fins usually dusky; second anal spine 

 of moderate length. 



Eastern Pacific species of the genus 

 Umbrina (Pisces: Sciaenldae) vj'Mh 

 a description of a new species 



H.J. Walker Jr. 



Scripps Institution of Oceanography 



University of California at San Diego, La Jolla, California 92093-0208 



Keith W. Radford 



Department of Biology, Mesa College 



7250 Mesa College Drive, San Diego. California 921 1 I 



Manuscript accepted 6 August 1992. 

 Fishery Bulletin, U.S. 90:574-587 (1992). 



Of the more than 70 genera in the 

 percoid family Sciaenidae, only Um- 

 brina has a worldwide distribution 

 (Chao 1986a). The approximately 15 

 species that constitute Umbrina oc- 

 cur in tropical to temperate waters 

 over the continental shelf to the 

 upper slope. In the New World, Um- 

 brina comprises four species in the 

 Atlantic (Gilbert 1966, Miller 1971) 

 and eight in the Pacific (this study). 

 Most eastern Pacific species are col- 

 lected with beach seines over sand or 

 sand-mud bottoms, along open coasts 

 or in bays, and probably support ar- 

 tisanal or sportfisheries wherever 

 they are found. In southern Califor- 

 nia the yellowfin croaker U. roncador 

 and spotfin croaker Roncador steam- 

 sii) together make up about 10 per- 

 cent of the surf fisherman's catch 

 (Frey 1971). 



No review of the eastern Pacific 

 species of Umbrina has been pub- 

 lished, although McPhail (1958) 

 wrote extensive keys to all known 

 eastern Pacific sciaenids, and Lopez 

 S. (1980) described a new species of 

 Umbrina from this area. The pur- 

 poses of this paper are to review the 

 eastern Pacific species of Umbrina, 

 provide a key and characters useful 

 in their identification, and describe a 

 new species. 



Materials and methods 



Counts and measurements generally 

 follow those of Hubbs and Lagler 

 (1958). Gill raker counts include rudi- 

 ments. Unless otherwise stated, stan- 

 dard length (SL) is used throughout. 

 Vertebral and procurrent caudal ray 

 counts were made from radiographs. 

 A short, stout barbel is defined as one 

 whose length roughly equals its width 

 at midlength (seen in side view); an 

 elongate barbel is at least twice as 

 long as wide. Mean percentages of 

 certain morphometries used in spe- 

 cies diagnoses were calculated usual- 

 ly from 30 specimens, occasionally 

 ~20 (when available), selected from 

 the entire size range of the species. 

 Standard errors associated with 

 these means were calculated strictly 

 to show relative variation for a par- 

 ticular proportion and were always 

 0.6% (once) or less. All pigmentation 

 notes were made from alcohol- 

 preserved specimens. Institutional 

 abbreviations follow Leviton et al. 

 (1985). There have been many in- 

 stances where eastern Pacific species 

 have been ascribed to Umbrina (e.g., 

 U. panamensis = Menticirrhus pana- 

 mensis; U. imberbis = Sciaena, prob- 

 ably callaensis), and these are beyond 

 the scope of this paper. Type material 



574 



