PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 issued im^\\A>\liWi ^y '^« 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Vol. 84 Washington : 1936 No. 3002 



re\t:sion of the fishes of the family microdes- 



MIDAE, with DESCRIPTION OF A NEW SPECIES ' 



By Earl D. Reid 

 Division of Fishes, United States National Museum 



GiJNTHEii described and figured the genotype of Microdesmus 

 (dipus), a specimen 4}^ inches in length, collected on the Pacific coast 

 of Panama by Capt. J. M. Dow. This example, now in the British 

 Museum, remained the sole representative of the genus until the 

 appearance of AI. retroinnnis Jordan and Gilbert, based on an ex- 

 ample nearly 4 inches in length, taken in a rocky tide pool at Panama, 

 early in the spring of 1881, by Dr. Charles H. Gilbert. The genus 

 CerdoJe appeared in the same paper following the description of M. 

 retropinnis but was disassociated from Microdesmus on characters 

 that at that time seemed sound when one considers the Umited ma- 

 terial at hand. Wejmiouth, in 1911, described an extremely elongate 

 form, creating for it the genus Leptocerdale , the first of the group to 

 be recorded from the Atlantic. This specimen, 210 mm long, was 

 taken June 11, 1906, at the outlet of Calcasien Lake, near Cameron, 

 La., by H. M. Spaulding. In 1927 Chabanaud described the first 

 species to be recorded from the Old World, under the name Lepto- 

 cerdale aethiopicum. The type, 51 mm in length, was taken at Ma- 

 hmba Bay, Kwele-Kwele Island, in Douala Bay, Cameroons. In 

 1928 Meek and Hildebrand described and figured three new species 

 of Microdesmus, overlooking a fourth undescribed form from material 



» Since tbis paper went to press, an additional species, Cerdale bilineatus Clark (Proc. California Acad. 

 Sci., ser. 4, vol. 21, no. 29, p. 394, Aug. 12, 1936), apparently referable to the Microdesmidae, has beeu 

 described from Indefatigable Island. 



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