^obnson jfun& 



A NEW GENUS OF OPISTHOGNATHID FISHES 



By GEORGE S. MYERS 



Assistant Curator, Division of Fishes, United States A^ational Mtiseum 



The presence of a new genus and species of Opisthognathidae 

 among the fishes obtained by the Johnson-Smithsonian Deep-Sea 

 Expedition has made it necessary to examine the scattered hterature 

 on the group and some confusing points in its classification. 



The trachinoids, as defined by Regan/ are not well differentiated 

 from the serranid-like percoids, and certain genera now referred to 

 some of the trachinoid families may be found to be nearer the other 

 group. Ogilby "* has revised the genera of Opisthognathidae, but he 

 included in this family the peculiar Japanese genus Ozvstonia^ which 

 is placed by Jordan, Tanaka, and Snyder * and by Jordan ' in the 

 nionotypic family Owstoniidae. To my knowledge this family has 

 never been defined. 



Owstonia seems to be one of those genera that might be placed with 

 equal propriety either among the anthiine serranids or with the 

 trachinoids. Barnard," when synonymizing Gilchrist's Parasphenan- 

 thias ' with Oivstonia, has pointed out the evident relationship of the 

 latter to Sphenanthias Weber.' Fowler ° has resurrected Parasphenaii- 

 thias for a new South African species, and places the genus in the 

 Pseudochromidae. Since I intend to treat this assemblage of genera 

 more fully in the near future, I shall not go further into their relation- 

 ships at this time, but I wish to point out that Ozvsionia, Sphenanthias, 



' The classification of the percoid fishes. Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 8, vol. 12, 

 pp. 111-145, 1913. 



'^ Mem. Queensland Mus., vol. 7, pt. i, pp. 123-124, 1920. 



' Tanaka, Journ. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, vol. 23, p. 2y, 1908. 



* Journ. Coll. Sci. Imp. Univ. Tokyo, vol. ^2, p. 188, 1913. 



"Classification of fishes, p. 231, 1923. 



'Ann. South African Mus., vol. 21, p. 492, 1927. 



'Union of South Africa, Fisher. Mar. Biol. Surv., Rept. no. 2 (1921), Spec. 

 Repts., p. 69, 1922. 



'Die Fische der Siboga-Expedition. Siboga-Exped., vol. 57, p. 210, 1913; 

 Weber and de Beaufort, Fishes of the Indo-.\u.stralian Archipelago, vol. 6, p. 114. 

 1931. 



°Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 86, p. 461. 1934. 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 91, No. 23 



