NEW CYCLOGASTERID FISHES FROM JAPAN. 



By C. H. Gilbert and C. V. Burke, 



Of Stanford University, California. 



The expedition in 1906 of the Fisheries steamer Albatross to the 

 northwest Pacific made notable additions to the cyclogasterid fauna 

 of Bering Sea and Japan. A total of 35 new species were secm-ed, of 

 wliich 23 were from Japanese waters, and are here described. The 

 family is miquestionably of boreal origin, and is distributed along 

 shore and in moderate depths as far toward the Tropics as the colder 

 currents can be distinctly traced. Farther south, a limited number 

 of species occur at greater deptlis. The group is richly represented 

 in the Okhotsk Sea, extends its range throughout the Sea of Japan to 

 the Straits of Tsushima, and on the eastern side of Hondo regularly 

 at least as far to the south as Matsushima Bay. Beyond this point 

 northern species are not known to extend, but two peculiar gigantic 

 forms (Cyclogaster owstoni and Cyclogaster tavxikae) appear in Sagami 

 Bay at depths which have not been determined. This occurrence is 

 paralleled among the Cottoids (also a boreal group) in the appear- 

 ance of the peculiar genera Stlengis, Schmidtina, and Daruma in 

 Sagami and Suruga Bays, well to the southward of the area of common 

 distribution of the northern genera. The cj'clogasterids are repre- 

 sented farther to the south in Japanese waters by two forms, Care- 

 proctus rhodomelas and Paralipans atramentatus, which were obtained 

 along the margins of the Kuro Siwo at depths of 405 and 649 fathoms, 

 and were taken with assemblages of forms belonging to a strictly 

 tropical deep-sea fauna. A similar distribution is shown also in the 

 eastern Pacific, where Paraliparis invades the deep waters of the 

 Tropics, and is represented by several species which are strictly con- 

 fined to the deep-sea tropical fauna. 



There are here recorded from Japanese waters (including the 

 Okhotsk Sea) 31 species of cyclogasterids, of which only 4 are known 

 to extend their range as far as Bering Sea, and one of the four is a 

 pelagic form of general distribution m the north Pacific. Bering Sea, 

 on the other hand, has approximately 25 species which are im- 

 recorded from the southwest. After making all necessar}' allow- 

 ance for the imperfect surveys of these regions, it appears obvious 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 42— No. 1 907. 



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