FRESH-WATER FISHES— MYERS 357 



and others, do not obey the distributional rules of true fresh-water 

 fishes. They are of no use to us in our present problem. Neither 

 are the two blind brotulids of the Cuban caves. They are the only 

 known fresh-water representatives of a primarily deep-water marine 

 family. 



The fishes which really belong to our secondary division of fresh- 

 water fishes are referable to five families, the garpikes, the syn- 

 branchid eels (Synbranchidae), the viviparous cyprinodonts (Poe- 

 ciliidae), and the cichlids (Cichhdae). It may be best to survey 

 them briefly to make clear our discussion of the faunas of the particular 

 islands. 



One large garpike, Lepidosteus tristoechus, occurs in Cuba. It is 

 generally supposed to be identical with the alligator gar of the 

 southern United States, but this is questionable. If the Cuban gar 

 is really different, it has probably been in the island a long time, but 

 garpikes are reported to enter salt water. 



Of the synbranchid eels, only one species (Synbranchus marmora- 

 tus) is West Indian. It is the only American form of the family 

 so far known and it ranges from Veracruz to Argentina on the 

 mainland. A single species of the same genus occurs in Africa and 

 another in India; the Indian one, at least, is known to frequent 

 brackish water. 



I have already mentioned the cichhds in connection with South and 

 Central American fishes. Three Antillean species are known, all 

 closely related species of Cichlasoma (Myers, 1928; Tee- Van, 1935). 



If the two records of West Indian Fundulus are mythical, as I 

 believe they may be, the oviparous cyprinodonts of the Antilles belong 

 to only three genera. Cyprinodon is a genus of the southern and east- 

 ern United States, northern and eastern Mexico, and certain Carib- 

 bean islands. The seaboard continental species always occur in 

 bracldsh or salt water, and the inland ones are partial to the alkaline 

 waters of desert pools. The same habits are exhibited by the island 

 forms. Rivulus, on the other hand, belongs to a South American 

 group ^ that has a general inland distribution as far north as Yucatan 

 and the Rio Papaloapan. It has been taken in tide pools at Curasao. 

 The peculiar Cubanichthys is found only in Cuba. 



The viviparous cyprinodonts form by far the largest proportion of 

 the Antillean fresh-water fish fauna. They belong to two subfamilies, 

 Gambusiinae and Poeciliinae, and of the first, Cuba possesses an 

 endemic tribe composed of five distinctive genera.^* The other 

 Antillean Gambusiinae are all members of the widespread Central and 

 North American genus Gambusia. Of the Poecihinae there is one 

 endemic West Indian genus, Limia, and three others {Poecilia, 



23 See Myers (1931). 



" See Hubbs (1924). The new Puerto Rican genus and species, NeopoecUta hoiacardhua, described In 

 this paper, was later synonymized with Poecilia tivipara by Hubbs. 



