4 University of Michigan 



Heros tetracanthus latus, based upon a specimen from San 

 Juan, appears to be characterized chiefly by the deep, compressed 

 body (depth 2 in length to caudal); but Eigenmann records the 

 depth in typical tetracanthus as varying from 2 to 2.7. 



Heros tetracanthus cinctus and H. nigricans are based on dark 

 adult individuals which show very distinctly the dark bars more 

 commonly restricted to the young; both were taken with other 

 individuals referred by Eigenmann to typical tetracanthus. As 

 this author stated, the type and only known example of nigricans 

 "is the most prominent of the aberrant forms"; in addition to 

 the peculiarities of form and color, in which it is approached by 

 other "subspecies," it lacks the pores in the posterior straight 

 portion of the lateral line; the number of pores in this portion of 

 the lateral line in other specimens varies widely, however (7 to 13), 

 and only one specimen among eighteen taken at Pinar del Rio 

 lacked these pores. 



Unless further evidence of their distinctness is forthcoming, 

 therefore, more than one form of cichlid can scarcely be recognized 

 in Cuba. 



Another nominal species may apparently be referred to the 

 synonymy of Cichlasoma tetracanthus. This is Acara adspersa 

 Giinther, from Barbadoes, known only from a single specimen, 

 re-described by Regan. The supposedly distinctive features of 

 this form, as described by Regan, seem to be, however, all due 

 to age variation (the type, of adspersum, 218 mm. long; Regan's 

 Cuban examples of tetracanthus, 64 to 154 mm. long). In the 

 larger Cuban specimens described by Eigenmann, the snout (when 

 2 . 5 in head, the eye 5) is quite as long as the postorbital length 

 of the head (suborbital not described by Eigenmann in large 

 specimens, but doubtless wider than in those of medium size); 

 the soft dorsal is produced "to near middle of caudal" (p. 233); the 

 caudal peduncle may be quite as long as deep (cf. fig. 12J. The 

 supposed difference in the depth of the caudal peduncle was 



