NOTES ON TWO RARE CALIFORNIA FISHES, RIMICOLA 

 EIGENMANNI AND PLAGIOGRAMMUS HOPKINSI. 



By John Otterbein Snyder, 

 Assistant Professor of Zoology, Stanford University, California. 



The following notes are offered as an addition to what is known 

 concerning two rare California shore fishes, Rimicola eigenmanni 

 and Plagiog rammus hopkinsi. 



RIMICOLA EIGENMANNI (Gilbert). 



An interesting little cling fish, Gobiesox eigi nmanni, was described 

 in 1890 by Doctor Gilbert " from a specimen about an inch long taken 

 at Point Loma near San Diego, California, together with several 

 others from San Cristobal Bay. A second species, G. muscarum, 

 was later described and figured by Meek and Pierson b from two 

 small specimens dredged at a depth of 10 fathoms in Monterey Bay. 

 Jordan and Evermann c then placed the two species in a new genus, 

 Rimicola, and in the same paper presented a figure of R. eigenmanni. 

 Other references have been made to these species, but the above is a 

 brief outline of their history. 



Several years ago, early in the month of January, Doctor Harold 

 Heath collected a number of specimens of a species of Rimicola in a 

 large tide pool near Pacific Grove. He found them depositing their 

 eggs on the leaves of the great bladder kelp Nereocystis. The small 

 fishes strongly resembled in color the brownish kelp, and clinging 

 closely to it they almost escaped observation. They were consider- 

 ably lighter beneath, however, and this character led to their discov- 

 ery, the whitish ventral surfaces showing through the thin leaves of 

 the plant. In the preservation of the specimens, the dark color dis- 

 appeared, the skin becoming a pale pinkish yellow, without spots or 

 other marks. These were lately examined by the writer and found 

 to resemble R. eigenmanni in every particular, a small example of 



Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIII, 18S0, p. 96. 



6 Proc. Cal. Acad. Sci., 1895, p. 571, with plate. 



c Idem., 1896, p. 231. (The figure of Rimicola eigenmanni here given is evi- 

 dently not of the type, as it shows 5 doi-sal and 6 anal rays, while the specimen 

 illustrated is said to have come from Todos Santos Bay.) 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXV— No. 1643. 



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