[23] FLOUNDERS AND SOLES. 247 



Habitat. — Atlantic coast of United States from Cape Cod to Florida. 



This species is the common flounder of the coasts of the Northern 

 States, its range apparently not extending much south of Charleston. 

 Of the species found in that region it is the most important from a com- 

 mercial point of view. It reaches a length of about 3 feet and a weight 

 of about 15 pounds. 



It has been confounded by nearly all writers with the more southern 

 species now called lethostigma, from which it is best distinguished by 

 its much greater number of gill-rakers and by its mottled coloration. 

 On account of this confusion it is impossible wholly to disentaugle its 

 synonymy from that of P. lethostigma. 



So far as the proper nomenclature of the two is concerned, this confu- 

 sion makes little difference. There is no doubt that this is the original 

 Pleuronectes dentatus of Linnaeus, as the original Linncean type is still 

 preserved in London. This has been examined by Dr. Bean and its 

 identity with the present species fully established. 



It seems also certain that this is the Platessa ocellaris of DeKay, who 

 properly distinguishes his ocellaris from his oblonga, the latter being P. 

 lethostigma. 



A little doubt must be attached to the melanogaster of Mitchill, very 

 scantily described from a doubled (black-bellied) example of this species 

 or of P. lethostigma. As the former species is much more common about 

 New York than the latter it is probable that Mitchill's fish belonged to 

 it. We have also received a doubled example from New York corre- 

 sponding exactly to Mitchill's description. We may therefore regard 

 the name melanogaster as a synonym of dentatus. 



The differences in the gill-rakers of these species was first noticed by 

 Jordan and Gilbert in 1883. These authors erroneously referred all 

 these sj'nonyms to the species with the few gill-rakers and described 

 the present one as new under the name of Paralichthys ophryas. The 

 discovery of the Linncean type of Pleuronectes dentatus has rendered a 

 reconsideration of this matter necessary, and it is evident that to the 

 "P. ophryas" belong also the prior names of dentatus, melanogaster, and 

 ocellaris. 



The name Platessa orbignyana Valenciennes, applied to a South Amer- 

 ican example and doubtfully referred by Dr. Giinther to his Pseudo- 

 rhombus dentatus, belongs to Paralichthys brasiliensis. 



16. PARALICHTHYS LETHOSTIGMA. 



(Tiie Southern Flounder*) 

 [Plate VII.] 



Platessa oblonga DeKay, New York Fauna, Fishes, p. 299, pi. 48, fig. 156, 1842. (New 

 York ; not Pleuronectes oblongus Mitchill.) Storer, Syn. Fish. N. A., 1846, p. 477. 



Pseudorhombus oblongus Giinther, Cat. Fish., iv, 426, 1862 (copied). 



Pseudorhombus dentatus Goode, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mas., 1879, 110. (St. John's River, 

 St. Augustine. ) Goode and Beau, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1879, 123 (Pensacola). 



Chcenopsetta dentata Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phil., 1864, 218. 



