natives concerning differences in the toxicity of fishes kn wn by the same native 

 names at various islands. Judgin*^ from these datn there an ears to be a tendency 

 for varlrtions in toxicity for the same species at differen islands of the same 

 group to be most comnon in the mildlv toxic ppecies and lea t common in the 

 violently toxic species. The only way to clarify this whol i question would be to 

 carry on studies over a lonr; pepiod of tLne at all of the c itlyinfT islands. 



A point which should be noted is that fishen to vjhich >he same nar»e is i^iven 

 are net necessarily of the same species, .'m exaroole in "anhallese is dreb. 

 which is a general tern used for almost all species of the ^enus Oymnothorqx . 

 The name .lowe is a general term for the Serranldae, and thtro are many other 

 similar examples such as bub (Balistidae), .julae (genus Pie ctropomus ) . snd diebdro 

 (iTepatidae). The same thing is true of Japanese common nar es, nhich rarely make 

 fine distinctions between species. For this reason any stt dy vjhich is based only 

 on names is bound to result in confusiono 



A comparison of replies to requests for the names of poisonous fishes 

 addressed to various areas Tave no useable results, the situation vith regard to 

 Japanese common names beinT even more confused than in the case of the native 

 names. For example, the name akamasu is applied to so many different species 

 that it is useless for exact identification. The fish called aomasu, an alto- 

 gether distinct species from those .just mentioned, is also called susulti at 

 Jaluit and aomachi. omachi. or omasu at Saipan, 'giving one the impression of 

 dealing with several different species. 



This confusion in nomenclature makes accurate identification impossible, 

 and even though a fish may be eiible at rne islan-l an-i a fish viith the same 

 nrne may be shovm to be poisonous at another island, no confidence can be placed 

 in this as an evidence of local variation in toxicity, 



Tt should be notei that the results of experiments nith animals reported in 

 the varion? sections of Chapter II shov; that ia many species the toxicity varies 

 as between individual specimens. Although the toxicity of a species may not 

 [Page 133] vary within a limitei are.-^,'it should be reccnlzed that some varia- 

 tion exists in widely senarated regions, as set forth in the follovjing Section 3» 



[Page 134] Section 2 Cn Individual and Seasonal Variations in Toxicity 



At the end of the preceding section it wan stated th.-^t the toxicity of mildly 

 poisonrus species varies with the locality. Furthermore, the results of experiments 

 reported in the various sectirns of Chapter II shov; that v.ithin the sane species 

 individuals vary greatlv in toxicity. This has -^iven rise to various theories, 

 as reported in the preceding section, but at present the reason for these varia- 

 tions is unknown and it can only be said that they are duo to some physioloirical 

 causes, luite a few authorities, including Pawlovusky and Poey ( op. cit. ), have 

 thought that one of these physiological causes is probably related to spawning. 

 The writer regrets thrt he was unrhle in the short period of time which this in- 

 vestigation covered to confirm this liypothesis. 



It has also been pointed out in Chapter II that in a number of soecies a 

 variation in toxicity depending on age can be observed. This is true, for example, 

 of Caranx nelampvgua among others, and Pawlowsky has reported the same 



82 



