568 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 112 



about 0.5 to 1.6 times into distance from end of rear nostril groove to 

 posterior margin of skin-covered area (b in plate 1g), in sizes above 40 mm. 

 S.L. Y-shaped process on head usually short and broad (plate 1), 

 least width of its base about 2.5 to 3.8 percent of standard length in 

 sizes larger than 100 mm. S.L. Top of head and body with small, 

 closely spaced, white spots (plate 2c). (North Carolina to New York.) 



Astroscopus guttatus Abbott 

 16. Spinous dorsal fin absent. 



4a. Lower jaw with a pair of prominent converging bony ridges on anterior 

 part, deeply notched between (plate 4d). Preopercle with lower edge 

 developed as a long flattened wing-like appendage, without true spines. 

 Body with embedded scales (readily apparent at 100 mm. S.L. and larger) . 

 Cleithral spine flattened and bluntly pointed. (Gnathagnus Gill 

 1861; one species in western North Atlantic, Georgia to Texas.) 



Gnathagnus egregi us (Jordan and Thompson) 

 4b. Lower jaw without a pair of prominent converging bony ridges on anterior 

 part. Preopercle without winglike appendage but with three spines pro- 

 truding from ventral margin. Body without scales. Cleithral spine 

 long, conical, and sharply pointed. (Kathetostoma Giinther 1860.) 

 5a. Pectoral rays 13 to 16. Dorsal fin with 2 or 3 distinct oblique black bars. 

 Caudal fin with 2 to 5 horizontally elongated black spots. Upper part 

 of body with distinct rounded or oblong white spots surrounded by dark 

 margins. (North Carolina to Yucatan.) 



Kathetostoma albigutta Bean 

 56. Pectoral rays 17 or 18. Dorsal fin without distinct bars, but with a single, 

 rounded, indistinct blotch. Caudal fin without horizontally elongate 

 black spots, but with a dark broad stripe about middle of fin. Upper 

 part of body without distinct white spots, but irregularly marbled. 

 (Off the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Honduras.) 



Kathetostoma cubana Barbour 



Genus Uranoscopus Linnaeus 



Uranoscopus Linnaeus, Systema naturae, 1758, p. 250. Type species: 

 Uranoscopus scaber Linnaeus, 1758, by monotypy. 



Uranoscopus occidentalis Agassiz 

 Plate 2a 



Uranoscopus occidentalis Agassiz in Spix, 1831, p. 123, pi. lxxiii (type locality 

 Atlantic Ocean, presumably on the coast of Brazil; type specimen presumably 

 destroyed in the Munich Museum during World War II). — Valenciennes in 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes, 1831, p. 492 (described after Agassiz, 1831). — 

 Fowler, 1941, p. 178 (recorded after Agassiz, 1831). 



Uranoscopus scaber (non Linnaeus), Kirsch, 1889, p. 261 (in part; reference to 

 Agassiz, 1831; excluding reference to Gunther's 1860 U. occidentalis). 



Not Uranoscopus occidentalis Agassiz, Giinther, 1860, p. 227 (specimens listed 

 are from Mauritius, and Gulf of Guinea, West Africa). 



Specimens examined: No specimens seen b\y us. 



Synonomy: Giinther (1860, p. 227) listed as Uranoscopus occi- 

 dentalis a stuffed adult specimen from the "West Indies" and two 

 young specimens from the Gulf of Guinea, West Africa; Fowler 

 (1936, p. 1033) included the reference of the young specimens in the 



