EELS OF THE GENUS CONGER KANAZAWA 227 



pores instead of five, four supraorbital pores instead of the usual two, 

 the greatest number of compressed teeth in jaws, and the young having 

 a single irregular row of vomerine teeth instead of the usual triangular 

 patch of teeth. C. myriaster follows by having numerous whitish spots 

 around the surface sensory pits and pores on head and body, the shape 

 of the preorbital bone different, and the preorbital bone with the 

 least amount of ossification among the species of Conger. 



Doubtful species: The proportions and counts made on the holo- 

 type of Congrus [Conger] leucophaeus Richardson (1844-1848, p. 108) 

 that Dr. N. B. Marshall of the British Museum kindly sent to me are 

 similar to those of Conger oceanicus and C. myriaster, which are found, 

 respectively, along the Atlantic coast of the United States and the 

 coast of Japan. The original description of leucophaeus lacks the type 

 locality but Richardson (1844-1848, p. vi) lists the locality as Ba- 

 hamas. The data that Dr. Marshall sent do not agree with the 

 proportions and counts made on triporiceps, the only species so far 

 recorded from the Bahamas. C. leucopthaeus has only one supra- 

 temporal pore whereas C. triporiceps has three; at 476 mm. in total 

 length leucophaeus lacks a single irregular row of vomerine teeth 

 whereas triporiceps has one row at that size. Therefore, without 

 further examination of the holotype, I am unable to place the species 

 leucophaeus. 



The counts and measurements of the holotype of leucophaeus sent 

 by Dr. Marshall areas follows: total length 476 mm., head length 73, 

 snout to origin of dorsal fin 92, snout length 17, diameter of eye 11, 

 pectoral fin length 25, teeth in jaws in two rows, vomerine teeth not in 

 single row, origin of pectoral fin to origin of dorsal fin 21, pores in 

 lateral line 41, supratemporal pore 1, and pectoral rays 18. 



Geographical distribution: The genus Conger is found in tropical 

 and subtropical marine waters throughout the world except in the 

 eastern Pacific along the American coast. The distribution of any 

 species of Conger is not as wide as was believed by some authors. 

 Only one species, C. cinereus, has a wide distribution, but it has differ- 

 entiated into two subspecies, C. cinereus cinereus from Africa eastward 

 to the Christmas Islands in the Central Pacific and C. cinereus 

 marginatus in the Hawaiian Islands (fig. 4). All of the other species 

 have a more restricted distribution. In this paper a geographical 

 range — as far as known or as indicated by material ^examined — is 

 given under each species. 



There is no actual record of capture of any species of the genus 

 Conger from the Atlantic coast of Central America. Meek and 

 Hildebrand (1923, p. 138) state that it doubtlessly occurs on the 

 Atlantic coast of Panama; however they had no specimen from that 

 area. 



463736—58 2 



