252 FISHES OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
Amazon basin 
Norman has redescribed the species from eight specimens, 60-180 mm., 
including the types of M. parma. 
15751, 5, 125-158 mm., Manaos, Allen, December, 1920. 
309. MyLopLus LEvis (Kigenmann and McAtee) 
Myleus levis Eigenmann, McAtee, and Ward, 1907, Ann. Carnegie Mus., IV, 142, pl. xli, fig. 2; 
Eigenmann, 1910, Rept. Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, III, 443. 
Myloplus levis Eigenmann, 1915, Ann. Carnegie Mus., IX, 271; 
Norman, 1928, Proc. Zool. Soe. London, 825. 
The Paraguay and Ucayali rivers 
310. MyLopLUS RUBRIPINNIS (Miller and Troschel) 
Myletes rubripinnis Miller and 'Troschel, 1845, Horae Ichth., I, 38, pl. ix, fig. 3; 
Ginther, 1864, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., V, 373; 
Figenmann and Higenmann, 1891, Proce. U.S. Nat. Mus., XIV, 60. 
Myleus rubripinnis Eigenmann, 1910, Rept. Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, III, 443. 
Myloplus rubripinnis Figenmann, 1912, Mem. Carnegie Mus., V, 391, pl. lvii, fig. 3, British Guiana; 
Fowler, 1939 (1940), Proce. Acad. Nat. Sei. Phila., XCI, 273, two, 100 and 103 mm., Conta- 
mana. 
Guianas and Peruvian Amazon 
The Myhnae are known to the Peruvians of the Oriental provinces under the 
names palometa or palometo and paco (pacu of Guiana). The pacos are the wider, 
more robust, and larger Myleus-type, while the thinner, more silvery, less colorful 
Metynnis or Mylosoma are the palometo. I found the latter group migrating in 
enormous numbers with the Prochilodus and Leporinus types, during the rising 
stages of the rivers. They were so abundant and so readily available in quantity 
with the throw-net, that they were the prime favorites for drying during the late 
dry season, despite the limited flesh. In this form they are a staple food for the 
rainy season when fishing becomes more difficult. The wrist-watch thinness and 
bony character of such fishes is cheerfully accepted by the Loretans by reason of 
abundance and the sweet flesh. With but little dressing they are thrown into stew 
pan or kettle entire, including heads and many scales, and cooked with rice or green 
plantains. They form a part of the luggage of many a traveler, together with the 
rice, beans, salt, etc., and a bunch of the plantains thrown on top the cargo. 
The thin and hatchet-like contours of the Chalcinus forms, carried further in 
the shorter Gasteropelecus, is emphasized still further in the Mylinae. Like the 
others named, they do a great deal of leaping from the water, especially at nightfall, 
describing a peculiar are through the air, and cleaving the water again with hardly 
a ripple, hatchet-edge-foremost. This activity is as much a part of the palometo 
as its body, and they may readily be identified by it, even at some distance. 
