PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



r55UC(/ i^?(\A^O?Mij by (he 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 

 U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 1C6 Washington: 1956 No. 3365 



ANEW PINECONE FISH, MONOCENTKIS REEDI, FROM CHILE, 

 A NEW FAMILY RECORD FOR THE EASTERN PACIFIC 



By Leonard P. Schultz 



Dr. Edwyn P. Reed ^ recentl_y sent to me for identification a plioto- 

 graph of, and later at my request the dried specimen of, a pineconc 

 fish of the family Monocentridac taken off the coast of Chile in the 

 Juan Fernandez Islands at a depth of 200 to 250 meters. A j>hoto- 

 graph of the specimen was also sent to H. W. Fov/ler, who puhlished 

 a note entitled "The Pinecone Fish, Alonocentris jajwnicus (Houttiiyn) 

 at Juan Fernandes, Southeast Pacific" (Fish Culturist, reference 

 below). 



This unique specimen represents the first record for the family in 

 the eastern Pacific. L^pon comparison of the specimen with the three 

 other known species referred to the family, I observed that it differed 

 in several characteristics and represented a new species. 



The occurrence in the eastern American Pacific of another of the 

 tropical central-western Pacific fauna indicates once more that the 

 eastern Pacific fish fauna is more closely related to that of the Indo- 

 Pacific than formerly supposed. These two faunas have difrerentiated 

 mostly on the species level and less so at the generic level. 



> Chief of the biological departmeut, Direccion Geucral do Pesca y Gaza, Valparaiso, Chile. 

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