100 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Color pale; side with a silvery band about as wide as pupil; side of 

 head bright silvery; back with dark points, forming an indefinite 

 stripe behind dorsal fin; dorsal and especially the caudal with dusky 

 points; other fins pale. 



A single specimen, 98 mm. (80 mm. to base of caudal) in length, 

 was secured by the Mission. This fish, which was dredged in shallow 

 water in the Gulf of Guayaquil, off Puerto Pizarro, Peru, forms the 

 basis for the foregoing description. It was compared with specimens 

 from Panama Bay, the type locality, with which it agrees quite well. 

 The body increases considerably in depth with age, but the gill rakers 

 apparently do not increase in number. In eight specimens from Panama 

 the range of vertebrae was 41 to 43. 



Range. — MazatMn, Mexico, to Puerto Pizarro, on the Gulf of 

 Guayaquil, Peru. The specimen from the Gulf of Guayaquil now 

 before me is the only one known from south of the Rio Dagua, 

 Colombia. 



ANCHOA CURTA (Jordan and Gilbert) 



Stolephorus curtus Jordan and Gilbert, 1882b, p. 343, Mazatldn, Mexico (original 

 description) . 



Anchovia curta Meek and Hildebrand, 1923, p. 206, Panama (synonymy; de- 

 scription; range). 



Anchoviella cxirta Jordan and Seale, 1926, p. 407 (description, based on "co- 

 types"). 



Anchoa curta Hildebrand, 1943a, p. 85, fig. 36 (synonymy; description; compared 

 with A. parva; range). 



Head 4.2 to 4.4; depth 4.4 to 4.8; D. 15; A. 22 to 25; P. 11 or 12; 

 scales lost, about 45; vertebrae 40 or 41 (two specimens dissected). 



Body moderately deep, strongly compressed, its greatest thickness 

 about equal to depth of caudal peduncle ; ventral outline more strongly 

 convex than the dorsal ; chest and abdomen with a rather sharp edge ; 

 head short, its depth at joint of mandible almost equal to its length 

 without snout; snout short, rather blunt, projecting about half its 

 length beyond tip of mandible, 5.2 to 5.8 in head; eye 3.05 to 3.33; 

 postorbital part of head 9.0 to 9.5 in length; maxillary pointed, ex- 

 tending slightly beyond joint of mandible, 1.25 to 1.35 in head; 

 mandible 1.45 to 1.5; cheek short and very broad, scarcely as long as 

 eye; gill rakers about three-fourths length of eye, 23 to 25 on lower 

 and 16 to 19 on upper limb of first arch; dorsal fin with slightly con- 

 cave margin, the longest rays reaching tip of last one if deflexed, 

 origin of fin about equidistant from base of caudal and middle of eye ; 

 anal moderately long, its origin about under middle of base of dorsal, 

 base of fin 4.0 to 4.3 in length; ventral reaching fully halfway to anal, 

 inserted about equidistant from base of pectoral and origin of anal; 

 pectoral rather small, failing to reach ventral by rather more than 

 diameter of pupil, 1.4 to 1.5 in head, 6.0 to 6.5 in length; axillary 

 scale of pectoral about three-fourths length of fin, 2.0 to 2.3 in head. 



