338 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1899. 



SYNGNATHIDiB. 



31, Leptonotus blainvillianus (Eydoux and Gervais). 



Syngnathus hlain-vilUanns Eydoux and Gervais, in Guerin, Mag. 

 ZoiJl., 1837, iv, pi. 17 ; Voyage Favorite, Zool., 79, pi. 32 ; Glin- 

 ther, Cat. Brit. Mus., viii, 162, 1868 ; Gay, Hist, de Chile, ii, 348, 

 1848 ; Steindachuer, Fauna Chilensis, 331, 1898 [Tumbes, Chile]. 



Leptonotus blainvillei Kaup, Lopliobrauchii of Brit. I\Ius., 46, 1856 

 [Peru]. 



Peru, Chile (India, Auckland Islands, New Zealand, Kinqj). 



32. Siphostoma aciculare (Jenyns). 



Syngnathus ackularis Jenyns, Fishes, Voyage Beagle, 147, pi. xxvii, 

 fig. 3, 1842 [Valparaiso] ; Steindachner, Fauna Chileusis, 331, 

 1898 [Iquique]. 



ATHERINIDiE. 



The large Atherinoids of the west coast of South America form 

 in number a very considerable proportion of the fish fauna of that 

 region. They are of the very finest of food fishes and with Mugil 

 cephalus comprise the bulk of the market fish in Callao and Lima 

 during the months of December and January, great quantities 

 being consumed daily. 



Until recently, nearly all fishes of the Basilichthys group have 

 been referred to the two species, Basilichthys {Atherimchthys') 

 laticlavia Cuv. and Val. and B. microlepidotm Jenyns, both origi- 

 nally from Chile. But it is evident that there must exist a great 

 variety of forms throughout the whole region. Gay, indeed, 

 hazarded the suggestion {Fauna Chilena, p. 255) that there 

 " must be many other species [than the above two] in the seas, 

 lakes and rivers of Chile." Two of these have recently been 

 described by Steindachner* as Chirostoma (Basilichthys) affine and 

 C. gracile, both very closely related to the forms here described. 



B. microlepi dolus has been very well figured and described by 

 Jenyns,' Girard* and Kner.* It is characterized especially by the 

 small, low, few-spined, first dorsal set rather close to the second dorsal. 

 B. laticlavia has been less fortunate. The original description" 

 is too brief to offer any decisive characters separating it from the 

 closely related species and its status was not improved by the 

 altered description of the species Avhich Giinther gives in his 



« Fauna Chilensis (von L. Plate gesam.), 281-339, July, 1898. 



' Voyage Beagle, 78, pi. xvi, 1, 2, 1841. 



«U. S. Astron. Exp. Southern Hem., ii, 238, pi. xxx, 6-9, 1854. 



9 Novara Fische (ii), 222 (no plate), Wien, 1865. 



i«Cuv. and Val., Hist. Poiss., x, 473, 1835. 



