IV. ON ELEPHENOR, A NEW GENUS OF FISHES FROM 



JAPAN. 



By David Starr Jordan. 



(Plates LIV-LVIII.) 



In the Atti Soc. Nat. Italiana of Milan in 1903, p. 137, fig. 6, Dr. 

 Cristoforo Bellotti described a peculiar fish from near Yokohama, 

 Japan, under the name of Pteraclis macropus. 



This fish, extremely fragile in structure, and with an exceedingly 

 high dorsal fin, is obviously not a true Pteraclis, as in that genus the 

 anal fin is about as long as the dorsal, and the scales are firm and hard, 

 while in P. macropus, the base of the anal is only about half as long as 

 that of the dorsal, and the scales are small, thin, and caducous. 



In 1905, Gill and Smith described from the Japanese island of 

 Shikoku, a species bearing a striking resemblance to Bellotti's fish, 

 under the name of Caristms japonicus (Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, 

 XVIII, 1905, p. 249). In Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. XXXI, 1906, p. 490, 

 fig. 10, Smith & Pope published a figure of this species which we here 

 reproduce (Plate LIV, upper figure). In the American Naturalist. 

 December, 1912, p. 748, I printed a notice of the work of Dr. R. H. 

 Shufeldt on the genus Pterycombus, a relative of Pteraclis, remarking 

 that "the singular Caristius, lately described from Japan by Dr. 

 Smith, is an ally of Pterycombus and belongs to the same family". 

 This view, I repeated in a memoir by Jordan & Thompson, "Record 

 of the Fishes obtained in Japan in 191 1" (Memoirs Carnegie Mus., 

 VI, September, 1914, p. 245). In this paper we reprinted the plate 

 of Caristius japonicus Smith & Pope with a new plate of Bellotti's 

 fish, which we called Caristius macropus. Of the genus Caristius we 

 said, "Its afifinities seem obviously to be wuth the scombroid forms, 

 especially with Pteraclis, the genus in which Bellotti placed it." 



This opinion was based on a specimen of Pteraclis macropus from 

 the Kuro Shiwo, or Gulf Stream of Japan, obtained by me for the 

 Carnegie Museum from Mr. Alan Owston in 191 1. I regarded this 

 as a Caristius and I called it Caristius macropus. Meanwhile Dr. 

 Erich Zugmayer of Munich (Result. Camp. Sci. Monaco, XXXV, 



329 



