748 MR. F. DAY ON THE IDENTITY OF [DcC. 19, 



4. Oa the Identity of Arnoglossus lophotes, Griintherj with 

 A. grohmanni. By Francis Day, F.Z.S. 



[E«ceived November 6, 1882.] 



(Plate LIII.) 



In the issue of ' Nature ' for October 5tli (vol. xxvi. p. 556) will 

 be found a notice that Professor Moseley had obtained off Cardiff 

 a specimen of Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, hitherto known only 

 from two dried skins in the Couch collection, the locality of which 

 was uncertain. This specimen was said to establish the validity of 

 Dr. Gihither's classification of this fish as a distinct British species. 



The article being unsigned, I have no means of ascertaining who 

 the author of this interesting statement may be ; and while expressing 

 my individual satisfaction that Professor Moseley has clearly obtained 

 a pleuronectoid fish hitherto not recorded from the British seas, I 

 would beg leave to draw attention to a few errors in the article. 

 First, there are three, not two, skins oi Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, 

 in the British Museum ; secondly, they came from Yarrell's, not from 

 Couch's collection ; while, as no doubt can exist of the identity of 

 these skins with Professor Moseley's specimen, I propose to show that 

 Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, is a synonym of Arnoglossus groh- 

 manni, Bonaparte. 



As, when writing the portion of my ' British Fishes ' which contains 

 the pleuronectoids, I had to investigate the question of the skins in 

 the British Museum, and whether on such grounds I could recognize 

 Arnoglossus lophotes as a British species, it may be interesting to 

 explain why I was unable to do so. This conclusion I still believe to 

 have been sound ; for I was under the impression that the specimens 

 did not constitute a new species, but were identical with the Medi- 

 terranean Arnoglossus groJimanni, from which locality I also believed 

 they had been obtained. 



The references to this fish are as follows : — 



Arnoglossus grohmanni. (Plate LIII.) 



Pleuronectes grohmanni, Bonap. Cat. Met. p. 47, no. 401; Fauna 

 Ital., Pesc. tav. 98. fig. 2: Canestrini, Arch, per la Zool. i. p. 12, 

 t. 1. f. 3 (58 scales along the lateral line) ; Moreau, Poiss. France, 

 iii. p. 326, fig. 185. 



Arnoglossus grohmanni, Giinther, Catal. iv. p. 417; Giglioli, 

 Catal. Pesc. italiani, p. 38, no. 315. 



Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, Catal. iv. p. 417; Couch, Fish 

 Brit. Isles, iii. p. 178 c. fig. (with abnormal curve to the lateral line). 



In the ' Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum,' iv. p. 417, 

 Dr. Giinther makes Cauestrini's fish the same as Bonaparte's. His 

 figure and description agree with Mediterranean specimens which I 

 exhibit, received from Prof. GigHoli of Florence, which are identical 

 with Prof. Moseley's fish. In the 'Catalogue,' /. c. pp. 417-418, 



