16 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 85 



Table l.-^Specimens of Mallotus catervarius {Pennant) examined in this study 



Sleggs (1933, pp. 9-16), in Lis study of tlie capelin of the Newfound- 

 land region, recognized but a single species, Mallotus villosus (Miiller), 

 although he states that certain evidence indicates the possibility of 

 races or of specific differences. Sleggs's map of the geographical dis- 

 tribution of Mallotus shows it to have a wide range, occupying the 

 northern seas of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. However, accord- 

 ing to his map, and the apparent lack of records of its occurrence off the 

 north coast of Siberia, its distribution is not known to be circumpolar. 

 The capelin occurs as far south as the "climatic isotherm 45° F. (mean 

 annual temperature)" (Sleggs, 1933), which indicates a range in the 

 Pacific Ocean as far south as Vancouver Island, where it was collected 

 and brought to my attention by G. V. Wilby. It has been taken as 

 far south as Korea along the Asiatic Continent. Throughout this 

 wide range it is to be expected that the species might have become 

 differentiated into subspecies or species, as has been found for the 

 hahbut (Schmidt, 1930) and for the codfish (Schultz and Welander, 

 1935). 



REDESCRIPTION OF MALLOTUS CATERVARIUS (PENNANT) 



The genus Mallotus has 170 to 220 scales along the lateral line, 

 more than in any other genus of osmerid fish, and because of the villous 

 bands of scales along the lateral line on the breeding male (Hubbs, 

 1925, p. 51) it can not be confused with any other genus referred to 

 the family Osmeridae. There is a superficial resemblance between 

 the dilated bands of scale pockets on the sides of the breeding males 

 of Spirinchus dilatus Schultz and Chapman (1935, p. 68) and the 

 greatly elongate scales ("villous" scales) of Mallotus (Sleggs, 1933, 

 fig. 8), but upon examination with a microscope the differences are 

 at once apparent as described by Schultz and Chapman. The struc- 

 ture and shape of the villous scales of AI. catervarius were found not 

 to differ from those of M. villosus. 



