Proceedings of 
mae United, States 
National Museum 
SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION ¢« WASHINGTON, D.C. 
————— eee eee 
Volume 120 1967 Number 3555 
REVIEW OF SOUTH AMERICAN FRESHWATER 
ANGELFISHES—GENUS PTEROPHYLLUM 
By Lronarp P. ScHuttz 
Senior Scientist, Department of Vertebrate Zoology 
The illustration of the new Plataroides leopoldi Gosse (1963, Inst. 
Roy. Sci. Nat. Belgique Bull., vol. 39, no. 35, pp. 4-6, pl. 1, fig. 2) 
so closely resembled the illustration of Plataxoides dumerilii Castelnau 
(1855, Animaux nouveaux ou rares . . . d’ Amérique du Sud, p. 21, 
pl. 11, fig. 3) that I decided to review the taxonomic status of all the 
nominal species of Pterophyllum. I shall attempt (1) to clarify the 
nomenclatural validity of the generic names Pterophyllum and Pla- 
taxoides, (2) to review the species complexes of Pterophyllum scalare 
(=P. evmeker) and Plataxoides dumerilui (=P. leopoldi,), and (3) to 
discuss the relationship between Pterophyllum altum Pellegrin and 
P. scalare (Lichtenstein). 
I have studied all nonaquarium specimens of Pterophyllum available 
in the following museums: British Museum of Natural History 
(BMNH); California Academy of Sciences (CAS); Chicago Natural 
History Museum (CNHM); Museum of Comparative Zoology, 
Harvard (MCZ); Museum National Histoire Naturelle, Paris 
(MNHN); Institut Royal des Sciences Naturelles de Belgique, 
Bruxelles (IRSNB); Stanford University (SU); U.S. National Museum 
(USNM). To the authorities of the above institutions, I wish to 
express my gratitude for their help and other courtesies. 
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