254 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.xxiv. 
covered with small, round, stellate, whitish spots, rather regularly 
placed, all narrower than pupil, and narrower than the interspaces. 
All the spots are round and those on sides of head, throat, and ])elly 
are largest. No bands on belly; base of pectoral black, with white 
spots; dorsal and anal dusky. Caudal spotted like the body. 
Pacific Ocean. 
One specimen from Okinawa, 125 mm. long, collected by Yonekichi 
Komeyama. 
We identify this species with some doubt with Tetraodon melear/ri>< 
as described, and as figured by Richardson. The only notable difler- 
ence lies in the form of the pale spots, which are lenticular or oblong 
in T. ineleagris and round in our specimen, as also in the specimens 
called ophryas and Jatifrons. 
{Meleag7HS^ a Guinea hen.) 
Family III. TROPIDICHTHYID^. 
SHARP-NOSED PUFFERS. 
This family includes small puffers, similar in external appearance to 
the Tetraodontida% but with the snout sharp and the back more or 
less compressed or ridge-like. The skeletal characters by which the 
group is defined are thus given by Dr. Gill: Medifrontals separated 
from the supraoccipital by the intervention of the sphenotics which 
are connected together and laterally expanded, but short; theproseth- 
moid prominent above, enlarged and narrowed forward. Vertebrge 
about S + 10. Head compressed, with a projecting, attenuated snout; 
dorsal and anal short, few-rayed. Nostrils wanting or little developed. 
Tropical seas; small species; none of them reaching a length of more 
than 6 inches. 
a. Nostrils small, consisting of a raised rim with a small perforation 
Euimidcrias^ -i^. 
4. EUMYCTERIAS Jenkins. 
Eumycterias Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 1899 (Jmie 8, 1901), p. 399 
{bitieniatus) . 
This genus differs from Tra'pidichtkyK. in the less complete atrophy 
of the nostrils. These are reduced each to a raised rim or small 
papilla with a small perforation like a pin-prick. 
(ew, well; fxvKxi^p^ nostril.) 
^ The nostrils are entirely wanting in TVopidichthys, the other genus of this family. 
The following is the synonymy of Tropidichthys: 
C'anthigaster Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes, II, 1839, p. 194 (diagnosis only; no 
species mentioned) . 
P.s?7ono<«s Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes, II, 1839, p. 328 {rofiiratas); substitute for 
C'anthigaster; not Psllunotua, a genus of Hymenoptera of prior date. 
Prilonotus (Kaup MS.) Richardson, Voyage Herald, 1854, p. 162 {rudrutus; 
misprint). 
Tropidichthys Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Nederl. Ind., IV, 1854 {valentini). 
Anosmius Peters, Wiegmann's Arch. 1855, p. 274 {txniatus). 
Rhynchotus (Bibron) Hollard, Etudes Gymnodontes, 1857, p. 320 {peroni). 
