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PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 83 



more species comprising this subgenus are geographically outside 

 the scope of the present paper, and, moreover, sufficient material 

 for comparison is not available. Consequently, the species are not 

 treated further here. 



Subgenus Hippocampus Rafinesque^i 



Hippocampus Rafinesqtje, Caratteri di alcuni nuovi generi e nuove specie di 



animali e piante della Sicilia . . ., p. 18, 1810. [Genotype: H. hippocampus 



(LinnaQus) =Syngnathus hippocampus Linnaeus=//. pentagonus Rafinesqiie 



by absolute tautonymy.] 

 Hippocampus Leach, The zoological miscellany, vol. 1, p. 103, 1814. [Genot3^pe: 



H. hippocampus (Linnaeus) — H. antiquorum Leach by absolute tautonymy.] 

 Hippocampus Cuvier, Le regne animal . . ., vol. 2, p. 157, 1817. [Genotype: 



H. hippocampus (Linnaeus) ^=Syngnathus hippocampus Linnaeus by absolute 



tautonymy and by monotypy.] 

 Farlapiscis Whitlet, Australian Zool., vol. 6, p. 313, 1931. (Genotj'pe: H. 



breviceps Peters by original designation.) 



The species of this subgenus that were studied form a compact 

 group, which may be sharply distinguished from the subgenus 

 Madeayina on the one hand and from Jamsus on the other as indicated 

 in the key. Whether this sharp distinction will hold when the other 

 species of seahorses are studied in detail remains to be seen. 



The necessity for the new generic name introduced by "Whitley 

 is not clear, and he gives no reason for establishing it. As far as I 

 can judge by current descriptions, H. breviceps, the genotype of 

 Whitley's Farlapiscis, belongs to the typical subgenus Hippocampus. 



Table 1. — Frequency distribution of the number of caudal segments and fin rays in 

 nine species or subspecies of the subgenus Hippocampus 



" See also p. 515 for a discussion of Perry's use of this generic name. 



