phenomenon for Lethrinus rostra tus . It is not '^nc;-3n 't nresent whether such a 

 variation exists in all species of poisonous fish or only in certain species, but 

 it should be noted that it occurs In a f^ood many. 



It appears that there is no discernible variation in toxicity due to sex. 



[Pa»e 135! Section 3 On the Distribution of Poisonous Fishes 



A comparison of the !brianas, Carolines, and T^rshalls areas of the South 

 Seas shows that poisonous fish occur in the greatest abundance, vjith the lar^i^est 

 number of species, mi \^ith the stronf^est toxicity in the Ilarshalls. The number 

 of species found in the ?Tarianas is much smaller and few of them are strcn,<»ly 

 toxic. This investigation did not extend to the Carolines area, howevcri it 

 anpears that althou<^ quite a few species occur in the nestem Carolines, they 

 are almost unknown in the eastern part of the "Troup. "aAy of the species re- 

 corded as poisonous in this paper are distributed throu/^hout this area. 



A point which should be noted concerning the distribution of poisonous fishes 

 is that since nost of them are taken near the outer reefs by the natives fishing 

 •1th hook an-l line or bv Japanese usim drivin^-in nets, they are no problem in 

 areas jhcre they are not taken because driving-in nets are not used or vjhere they 

 are taken but not eaten because of local dietary habits. Consequent Iv there may 

 be places where they occur but where they have never been recorded nor reported. 



Mpst of the species treated in Chapter HI occur in the "arshalls but only 

 in rare cases are they limited to that area. The majority of them have a vjide 

 distribntion, nanv of them occurring* in the coastal v;aters of 'inst .frier, the 

 led '^ea, the Indian Ocean, the ?-rGt Indies, "avjaii, and Ilorth Australia. A nore 

 detailed examination sho-)S that the coastal waters of Southeast 'sia, that is 

 tTalaya, French Indo-Chinai Thailand, and the Ch-ina Sea, have few species in 

 common vdth the 'Tarshalls, and there seem to have been no reports of poisonous 

 fish occurring; in those waters. Althou(»h the ^ast Indies (Sundn, Borneo, Celebes, 

 etc^ "rea has a <^ood many species in common v.'ith the riars'^alls, " e have not been 

 able to find any mention of poisonous fish amon'^ the nu-nerous papers published 

 there. This may be because they occur rarelv there, or because thev are not taken 

 by the fishinpj methods in use there and so do not appear in the market, or because 

 the natives are not, like the Japanese, a fish-eating people. Not havin': investi- 

 gated this situation in person, all the writer can soy is that Judr;in^ from the 

 literature published hitherto there are probably no poisonous fishes occurring in 

 the '^ast Indies and the Indian Ocean. 



The areas which have the deepest connection with the poisonous fishes of the 

 Marshalls and "arianas cited in this report are Hav.-aii (includin;^ "/ake I.) and 

 the so-called Polynesian islands (Fiji, Samoa, Society, TTew Caledonia, t'ew 

 ^'ebrides,^nd so forth). The ichthyfauna of the ?tarshalls is, as stated by Ilerre^-', 

 [Pa^e 136j most closely related to that of the Hawaiian Islands and the various 

 Polynesian groups. 



They have many species in common, the majority of those recorded in this 

 paper beinf^ also found in those islands, and it is not difficult to imae^ine that 



*Herre: The Fishes of the T^erre Philipnine "expedition. Ilongkon;^, 193^. 



83 



