APOGONID FISHES OF THE INDO-PACIFIC — LACHNER 589 



lected by the Albatross expedition) ; U.S.N.M. No. 111964, 1 specimen, 

 37 mm., June 4, 1902, Apia, Samoa (Jordan and Kellog) . 



Description. — The head and body proportions and the number of 

 fin rays and gill rakers are nearly identical to those of A. dispilus 

 (tables 2 and 3). 



Color in alcohol. — Head and body tan to brown with some light- 

 bluish silvery iridescence on cheek, opercle, and side of body; some 

 fine, scattered pepperlike brown spots on sides of head and a few 

 on the body; a broad, dark-brown, vertical band, its greatest width 

 slightly exceeding diameter of pupil, extends from lower margin of 

 eye to basal margin of anterior preopercle ; the most significant char- 

 acter present in this species and absent in all other members of the 

 genus is the presence of a blackish humeral spot at junction of gill 

 opening and body, circular to squarish in shape, its greatest diameter 

 equal to or only slightly larger than diameter of pupil; humeral 

 spot almost always intensely developed (faded but not obscure in 

 about one percent of specimens listed above) ; a blackish, intense, cir- 

 cular spot at midbase of caudal fin, sometimes faded or completely 

 obscure, its diameter slightly larger than pupil and about twice in 

 diameter of eye. 



The name higuttata refers to the two dark spots, the humeral spot 

 and the one at the midbase of the caudal fin (pi. 17, d) . 



Range. — East Indies, Philippine and Samoan Islands. 



Reinarks. — Although Bleeker's account (1874, pp. 72-74) of Amia 

 macro'pterus contains more than one species by the inclusion of such 

 data as the anal fin rays ranging from II, 14 to II, 18 and his state- 

 ment on the variability of the humeral spot, it is distinctly understood 

 which species he examined from his illustration (1876-77, tab. 346, 

 Perc. tab. 68, fig. 2). His name is unfortunately preoccupied (see 

 synonymy of Archamia lineolata., p. 591). The low anal-ray count, 

 II, 13, listed by Cuvier and Valenciennes (1828, p. 160) for Apogon 

 macropterus, and the absence of mention of a spot at the junction of 

 the gill opening and body, certainly define Bleeker's macropterus as 

 a different species. Examination of several collections totaling more 

 than a hundred specimens, from small juveniles to adults, confirmed 

 the constant presence of the well-developed humeral spot on the body 

 at the junction of the gill opening. 



The single specimen from Apia, Samoa (U. S. N. M. Xo. 111964) 

 was taken in the same collection with Archamia fncata and ^4. lineo- 

 lata.1 but it was apparently overlooked by Jordan and Scale (1906, 

 p. 252). Recent intensive collecting by Schultz and others in the 

 Marshall Islands, as well as in the Phoenix and Samoan Islands 

 (Schultz, 1943), failed to reveal a single specimen, indicating that it 

 is probably not common or does not occur in this area of the Pacific. 



944974 — 51 2 



