PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 345 



ON THE HDEIVTITY ©F EtlCISABjAKOroUS PUTIVAITaH, fiHijI., "WITH 

 PCEB-TROIVEtTES C;I.A]EB!':R, (STCPBEB) Git,!., "IVBTBI NOTES OIV TME 

 BtABflTSli OF THE SPECIES. 



By TARI.ETOW H. BEAN. 



In October, 1864, Prof. Gill described a remarkable new genns of 

 pleuronectoids under the name of Euchalarodus,* from specimens sent 

 to him from Salem, Massachusetts, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, which has 

 ever since been considered an anomaly among flat-fishes. Euclialarodus 

 Piitnami is little known except through the excellent description of its 

 founder, the few specimens collected being shared by only two museums — 

 that of the Peabody Academy, Salem, and the U. S. National Museum. 

 In contrasting Euclialarodus with other American genera of Pleuronec- 

 tinsb, Prof. Gill says:t "From the American genera Pseudopleuronectes^ 

 Blkr., Hopsetta^[\] GiU, Myzopsetta, Gill, and Limanda, Gottsche, it is at 

 least distinguished by its squamation, oculo-scapular ridge, nostrils, 

 dentition and structure of the dorsal and anal fins. It is most nearly 

 related to Pleuronectes,[§] with which it agrees in the free tongue, but 

 the more perfect union and the triangular form of the wholly united 

 lower iiharyngeal Ijones, the want of an anal spine, and, above all, the 

 movable teeth and scarcely iierforate anterior nasal tubes will especially 

 distinguish it, not only from that genus, but from any other known one. 

 So anomalous indeed are the characters of dentition and nostrils, that 

 only after I had felt each tooth could I be convinced that they were 

 really normally movable, and that the condition was not the effect of 

 disease, an idea which, impi'obable as it was, occurred to me. The re- 

 maining genera of the subfamily of PleuronectiiiiE — Platiehfhys, Grd., 

 Paroplirys^ Grd., Lepidopsetta, Gill, Glyptocephalus, Gottsche, Mlcrosto- 

 nms, Gottsche, Pleuroniehthys, Grd., Hypsopsetta, Gill, Hcteroprosopon, 

 Blkr., and Clidoderma, Blkr. — are equally or still more distinct than 

 those alreadj^ mentioned." 



From the above and from an examination of the types it is evident 

 that we should comi)are Euclialarodus with Pleuronectes. This I have 

 done, enqiloying for the purpose the types of the description of Euclia- 

 larodus Putnaini, Gill, and specimens of Pleuronectes ylaber, (Storer) Gill, 

 and Pleuronectes platessa, Linn. My investigations force me to the con- 

 clusion that these are all members of one and the same genus, Pleuro- 

 nectes, since they XJOssess in common the characters of that genus as 

 defined by Bleeker, as well as those by which Euclialarodus was differ- 

 entiated from Pleuronectes. Euchalarodus, by the way, lias an anal spine. 



* Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 18C4, pp. 221 and 222. 



t Op. cit. p. 222. 



[t] The Platessa glabra of Storer, for the accommodation of wliich this genus was 

 proposed, has since been referred to the genus Pleuronectes (Art.) Bleeker, by Prof. Gill. 



[ ^ ] Pleuronectes (Art. ) Bleeker, Verslagen en Mededeelingeu der koninklijke Akadcmie 

 van Wetenschappen, Deel xiii, Amsterdam, 1832, pp. 427, 428. 



