LABRACINUS THE PROPER NAME FOR THE FISH GENUS 



CICHLOPS. 



By Theodore (tlll, 



Honoray As.^ociate in Zoology. 



In 184;t Miiller and Trosehel, in the Hora? Ichthyologicfe (III, p. 2i). 

 gave the name CicJtJops to a well-known genus of the family called In- 

 them Pseudrochi'omides or, as now named, Pseiidochromida?. The name 

 has been universally retained for the genus ever since, and last by 

 Jordan and Snyder (1002) in a Review of the Trachinoid fishes and 

 their supposed Allies found in the Waters of Japan. '^ The identical 

 name Cichlo])s^ however, had been used several years previously (in 1811) 

 for a genus of birds by Hodgson and published in Gray's Zoological 

 Miscellany (p. 83). The avian genus is now regarded as a svnonym of 

 AntJius, but the early use of the name precludes its retention for the 

 hsh genus. For that genus Laljrachi us may be used; it was apparently 

 originally given by H. Schlegel, without description or reference to a 

 type, and simply to specimens in the Leyden Museum. At least this 

 is the legitimate inference from the only known notice of the name, 

 which occurs in the memoir of l^lecker. Bleeker, at the head of the 

 genus Cichlops, has the reference " Cichlops M. Tr. = Labracinus Schl. 

 (Mus. L. B.).'''^ 



As the facts thus indicated have not been noticed in late works, a 

 new name might be given and the synonymy thus lumecessaril}- added 

 to; to avoid this the present note is given. 



«Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXIV, 1902, p. 491. 



''The first publication of the name Lahracmns appears to have Ijeen made in Van 

 der Hoeven's " Handboek der Dierkunde." Aftera diagnosis of ^^Glaucomma Sch\.'^ 

 a note is appended, viz: "Annot. Hie etiam collocandnm videtur genus novum e 

 mare indico prope Celebes, Lahracinns Mus. L. B., cujus descriptionem a Doctissimo 

 Schlegel exspectandum puto." This is translated in the English edition (II, p. 177): 

 "Note. — Here also would seem to be the place for a new genus from the Indian Sea 

 near Celebes, Labracinus Mus. L. B., of which I think the description may be ex- 

 pected from Doctor Schlegel." The expectation was never realized, and no one could 

 have imagined what genus was intended, as Labracinus has no resemblance or affinity 

 to Glancosoma. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVlll— No. 1384. 



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