16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 82 



Holotype. — U.S.N.M. No. 92802. Male. Laguna Madre, near Cor- 

 pus Christi Pass, Tex.; April 7, 1927; collected by John C. Pearson. 



Remarks. — This is a very common species on the northern part of 

 the Gulf of Mexico; but it has, as yet, received no name. Another 

 species, hosci, is also common on the Gulf coast. Both of these species 

 have been confused by most authors and treated under one name. 

 The name applied in the literature to this composite of two common 

 species has been either molestum or bosci, depending on whether any 

 particular author "regarded " the population of common naked gobies 

 on the Gulf coast as being distinct from that of the Atlantic coast or 

 identical. The type of molestum, which has been examined, proved 

 to be a specimen of bosci, thus requiring a name for the second com- 

 mon species. Gobiosoma robustum is readily separated from bosci by 

 fewer fin rays in the dorsal and anal, by a longer ventral disk, and 

 by a different color pattern. The naked gobies of the Atlantic and 

 Gulf coasts of the United States have been badly confused in the lit- 

 erature and have been distinguished and identified generally by geo- 

 graphical lines rather than by morphological differences. A revision 

 of the genus, showing in detail the morphological as well as the geo- 

 graphical limits of the species, is now nearly completed. Specimens 

 of the present species were examined from Indian River at Cocoa, 

 east coast of Florida; Cape Sable, Fla.; Apalachicola and Pensacola, 

 west coast of Florida; Cat Island, Miss.; Grand Isle, La.; and Corpus 



Christi, Tex. 



Aruma, nev/ subgenus 



Subgenotype. — Gobiosoma occidentale, new species. 



Dejinition. — This subgenus' differs chiefly from typical Gobiosoma 

 in having a deeply cleft tongue, a character which is currently used 

 in separating gobiid genera. The small but well-developed barbule in 

 front of the eye, which is present in Aruma, is but faintly indicated or 

 rudimentary in typical Gobiosoma, while the head is markedly more 

 depressed in Aruma. Besides the following new species, this sub- 

 genus includes also Gobiosoma histrio Jordan.^* 



GOBIOSOMA OCCIDENTALE, new species 



Description of type. — No scales on caudal. Mental frenum not 

 bilobed. D. 7-12. A. 11. Body markedly slender, depth 6.1 times 

 in length without caudal. Head notably depressed, its depth directly 

 behind eyes 2.5 times in its length, considerably less than its width 

 at the same point. Mouth somewhat oblique, outer edge of upper 

 jaw on a horizontal line below lower margin of eye; lower jaw some- 

 what projecting; lips wide. Maxillary about reaching a vertical 

 through posterior margin of pupil. Anterior nostril in a short tubule ; 



" Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 7, p. 260, 1884. 



