372 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.40. 



Lepomis gibbosus in bright color can be almost always identified at 

 sight, but this can not be said of the others. 



Below we give a list of some of the prominent writers who have 

 treated more or less at length of the sunfishes: 



C. S. Rafinesque 1 did not mention pharyngeal teeth in his diagnoses 

 of the genera Lepomis, Pomotis, and Apomotis. Later (1819-1821) 

 the same author 2 proposed the names Calliurus, Ichthelis ( = Lepomis), 

 and Telipomis ( = Apomotis) giving various unimportant characters 

 in his diagnoses, but making no mention of pharyngeal bones or teeth 

 or any other structural distinctions. 



Cuvier and Valenciennes 3 give paved pharyngeal teeth as one of the 

 principal characters of the genus Pomotis. In a revision of the generic 

 characters in the seventh volume (1831) this is not mentioned and is 

 evidently not considered. 



J. P. Kirtland, in his notes on fishes of the Ohio River, 4 does not 

 mention pharyngeal bones in the descriptions. 



Charles Girard did not use this character in his diagnoses of several 

 genera of Centrarchidse in Fishes of the Pacific Railroad Survey (1858) 

 and Fishes of the Mexican Boundary Survey (1859). 



John Edwards Holbrook in the Ichthyology of South Carolina 

 (1860) defines the genus Pomotis ( = Eupomotis Gill and Jordan) on 

 page 7, and Ichthelis ( = Lepomis Rafinesque), page 12. He seems to 

 have been the first author to have used the character of the pharyn- 

 geal teeth as the major difference between groups of sunfishes. We 

 quote his diagnosis in full: 



GENUS POMOTIS.— Rafinesque. 



Characters: Pre-opercle more or less denticulated; opercle with a membranous 

 appendix at its angle; intermaxillary, vomerine, and inferior maxillary teeth villiform; 

 tongue and palate bones smooth, or without teeth; pharyngeal teeth paved; dorsal fin 

 single; anal with three spines; branchiostegal rays, six. 



GENUS ICHTHELIS.— Rafinesque. 



Characters: Body elliptical or oval, much more compressed; mouth small, armed 

 with small teeth; pharyngeal teeth not paved; branchiostegal rays, six. 



This is a change from the first edition (1855) where all the species 

 are grouped in the genus Pomotis, which is thus defined on page 6 : 



Pre-opercle more or less denticulated; intermaxillary, vomerine, inferior maxillary, 

 and pharyngeal teeth; tongue and palate bones smooth or without teeth, a membra- 

 nous appendix at the angle of the opercle; branchial rays, six. 



David Humphreys Storer 5 mentions minute teeth on pharyngeal as 



one of the characters of Pomotis, but gives it no special consideration. 



David Starr Jordan proposes the name Lepiopomus as a better 



> Journ. de Physique, 1819, pp. 402-420. 4 Boston Journ. Nat. Hist., vols. 3, 4. 5, 1840 to 1845. 



2 Ichthyologia Ohiensis, pp. 26, 27. b Fishes of Massachusetts, 1867, p. 12. 



3 Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. 3, 1829, p. 91. ■ Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. Hist., 1876, p. 316. 



