144 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 122 



The pelvic fin is uniformly pale dusky. The caudal fin bears up to 

 nine dark stripes composed of regidarly arranged spots appearing over 

 the caudal rays; the number of stripes increases with size. 



Relationships. — Entomacrodus thalassinus is most closely related 

 to E. macrospilus. (For differentiation, see "Relationships" under E. 

 macrospilus.) 



Remarks. — Entomacrodus thalassinus has been collected with or 

 from the same restricted geographic locality as E. stellifer (both 

 subspecies), E. decu^satus, E. vermiculatus, E. niuafoouensis , E. 

 epalzeocheilus , E. cymatobiotus, E. striatus, E. rofeni, E. sealei, and 

 E. caudofasciatus. 



For geographic distribution, discussion, and material, see subspecies 

 accounts. 



Entomacrodus thalassinus thalassinus (Jordan and Scale) 



Plate 28 



(For diflferentiation, see E. t. longicirrus) 



Alliens thalassinus Jordan and Seale, 1906, U. S. Bur. Fish. Bull. 25 (1905), p. 



425 [Apia, Samoa]. 

 Alliens musilae Jordan and Seale, 1906, U. S. Bur. Fish. Bull. 25 (1905), pp. 425-426 



[Apia, Samoa]. 

 Salarias lacnnicola Fowler, 1948, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 98, p. 178 

 [Agu-Shima, Ryukyu Islands]. 



Nomenclature. — Alticus thalassinus and Alticus musilae were 

 described in the same paper and were not differentiated from each 

 other. The former is based on a male and the latter, a female of the 

 same species. Salarias lacunicola was described without comparison 

 with other species. The noncrenulated ventral margin of the upper 

 lip, presence of vomerine teeth, color pattern, short supraorbital 

 cirrus and low gill-raker and fin ray counts are sufficient to synonymize 

 these three nominal forms. Of the two described together, A. 

 thalassinus appeared first in the paper and is the name in most common 

 usage. Since the original description, A. musilae has been considered 

 a synonym of one species or another of Entomacrodus. Schultz 

 (1943) first placed A. musilae in synonymy with A. thalassinus. 

 Schultz and Chapman (1960, p. 343) synonymized S. lacunicola with 

 E. niuafoouensis but gave no reasons for their action. Entomacrodus 

 niuafoouensis differs in many ways from E. t. thalassinus, but it is 

 sufficient to mention here that E. niuafoouensis has a crenulated 

 ventral margin of the upper lip, pairs or multiples of pores included 

 in the preopercular series of pores, and more than one pore before each 

 anterior nostril. 



