4 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM VOL. 120 
Soc. New South Wales, p. 68) were in error in considering that 
Pterophyllum Heckel is not available as a generic name with the type 
species Pterophyllum scalare Heckel (=Zeus scalaris Lichtenstein). 
Myers (1940, Stanford Ichthy. Bull., vol. 2, no. 1, p. 36) pointed out 
that Neave (1940, Nomenclator zoologicus, vol. 3, p. 1028) was in 
error in the following statement: ‘‘Pteropyhllum (pro-lla, Kirby 1825), 
Harris 1833, in Hitchcock, Rept. Geol. Min. Bot. Zool. Massach., 
582-Orth.” I have checked Harris (1833, 1835, Rep. Geol. Mineral. 
Bot. Zool. Massachusetts) and can verify Myers’ observation that 
Harris consistently used Pterophylla, leaving Pterophyllum available. 
Pterophyllum dumerilii (Castelnau) 
PLATE 2 
Plataxoides dumerilit Castelnau, 1855, Animaux nouveaux ou rares... de 
Amérique du Sud. . . , p. 21, pl. 11, fig. 3 [Pard=Belém]. 
Plataxoides leopoldi Gosse, 1963, Inst. Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique Bull., vol. 39, 
no. 35, p. 4, pl. 1, fig. 2 [mouth of Rio Solimdées, about 90 km above Mana- 
capurt]. 
Specimens studied (see page 2 for more precise locality): BMNH 
1902-11-4-10-12, Marajé, 3 (27 to 40 mm); BMNH 1902-2-11-4-9, 
Tonantins, 1 (41 mm); MCZ (out of 14992), Tefé, 2 (33 and 37mm); 
CNHM (out of 15254); Santarém, 1 (40 mm); CNHM 53846 Rupu- 
nuni River, 2 (33 and 54 mm); CNHM (out of 54370), Santarém, 1 
(37 mm.); USNM 167772, Rupununi River, 1 (440 mm.); USNM 
198177, Rio Urubu, 1 (45 mm.); USNM 198178, Rio Purtis, 2 (29 and 
31 mm.); IRSNB 460, Rio Solimées. 90 km above Manacapurt, 27 
paratypes of P. leopoldi, (34 to 61 mm); MNHN A 254, Para, Brazil, 
holotype of P. dumerilii (49 mm); MNHN 221-61-3-7, Cacaual, 1 
(37 mm); MNHN 221-61-3-6, Caldron, 2 (42 and 51 mm). 
I examined the holotype of Platazoides dumerilii Castelnau at the 
Museum National Histoire Naturelle, Paris, and found that 
Castelnau’s illustration (1855, pl. 11) is in error. In his illustration, 
a black spot is shown behind the prominent black vertical bar that 
extends from the middle of the dorsal fin across body to the middle 
of the anal fin, whereas in the holotype this spot now shows as a 
trace in front of that dark bar, not behind it. Also, the dark vertical 
bars anteriorly on the illustration are incorrectly portrayed. On the 
holotype a short bar extends from the spiny dorsal origin ventrally 
to the lateral line, another short bar occurs halfway between the eye 
and the spiny dorsal origin; there is also a dorsoventral bar through 
the eye and across the cheek. These bars are prominent in well- 
preserved specimens and their positions differ notably from those 
of Pterophyllum scalare and P. altum. On the latter two species, 
the black bar through the eye extends dorso-posteriorly to the origin 
