REVIEW OF THE PARROTFISHES 11 



East Pacific. Euscarus, with 2 species, is confined to the East 

 Atlantic. 



Though many of the various genera and species of parrotfishes 

 recognized in this paper are of wide distribution, enough have been 

 found restricted to certain geographical areas to indicate endemism 

 at the species level, but less so at the generic level. Especially note- 

 worthy regions of endemism are the western Indian Ocean, the 

 Hawaiian and Johnston Islands, the East Pacific, the West Atlantic, 

 and the East Atlantic. 



These geographical regions may be considered by some zoogeog- 

 raphers as being regions of considerable endemism at the species 

 level. That this is partly true I fully agree, but great caution is 

 urged because at this state of our knowledge little research has been 

 done to find out the similarities of species between the various regions. 

 For example Scams azureus of the East Pacific is close to S. dussumieri 

 of the Central and West Pacific; S. noyesi (East Pacific) is very close 

 to S. ghobban (Indo-Pacific) ; Scarops jordani occurs in the East 

 Pacific and Hawaiian Islands. 



During my search of the literature on parrotfishes I have found 

 354 scientific names proposed for species of the Scaridae. Among 

 these, I am able to verify only 63 valid species in the tropical Indo- 

 Pacific Ocean and only ] 7 for the tropical Atlantic Ocean, making a 

 total of 80 species for the world. There may of course, be others. 

 This study must not be considered final; some of the species are 

 recognized only tentatively pending an extensive study of fresh 

 specimens, a study which should clarify my treatment of several 

 doubtful species. 



I consider the following 34 scientific names as not identifiable : 



Pseudoscarus arabicus Steindachner 1907 



Scarus arcuatus Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Pseudoscarus augustinus Kossmann and Rauber 1876 



Scarus caerulescens Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Scarus capistratus Kuhl and Von Hasselt in Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Scarus chloris Bloch and Schneider 1801 



Scarus cretensis Bloch, pi. 220, 1790 



Scarus cruentatus Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Scarus denticulatus Lac^pede 1803 



Scarus enneacanthus Lac^pfede 1803 



Scarus ferrugineus Forsk&l 1775 



Scarus festivus Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Scarus flavescens Bloch and Schneider 1801 



Scarus flavescens Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



Scarus frontalis Cuvier and Valenciennes 1839 



396816—58- 



