PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



by the 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Vol. 84 Washington: 1937 No. 3008 



THE DEEP-SEA ZEOMORPH FISHES OF THE FAMILY 

 GRAMMICOLEPIDAE 



By George S. Myers 

 Stanford University, California 



The rarity of the strange oceanic fishes of the family Grammico- 

 lepidae, together with the unique character of their vertically atten- 

 uated scales, has placed them among the greatest desiderata of 

 ichthyological collections. The four nominal species have been re- 

 ferred to three genera, but no previous writer appears to have exam- 

 ined more than one of them. Moreover, the type and supposedly 

 the only known specimen of the first-discovered species seems to be 

 lost, and Poey's original description of it has been misinterpreted. 



It is therefore of interest to find a fine specimen of Poey's species 

 in the collections brought back by the Johnson-Smithsonian deep-sea 

 expedition, as well as three examples of Xenolepidichthys dalgleishi, 

 a species hitherto known only from South Africa, among the fishes 

 collected by the U. S. S. Albatross in the Philippines. Prof. Albert 

 E. Parr has been kind enough to allow me to examine Mowbray's 

 types of Grammicolepis squamilineatus in the Bingham Oceano- 

 graphic Collection at Yale University and to bring two of the para- 

 types to Washington for comparison. Finally, I have had at hand 

 Jordan's type of Vesposus egregius, from Hawaii. 



Tliis material is more varied than that examined by other writers, 

 and it has enabled me to determine that the known specimens of the 



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