No. 14. — Certain Scopelids in the Collection of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology. By Charles H. Gilbert. 



For the privilege of examining the Scopelids of the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology and of reporting on the species which form the 

 basis of the following descriptions, I am indebted to the authorities of 

 the Museum and especially to Mr. Samuel Garman. 



Diaphus nocturnus (Poey). 



Plate 1. 



Myctophum nocturnum Poey, Mem. Hist. Nat. de Cuba, 1860, 2, p. 426. 

 Collettia nocturna Jordan and Evermann, Fishes North America, 1896, 1, p. 567. 

 Lampanyctus laceita Goode and Bean, Oceanic Iciithyology, 1896, p. 81, pi. 24, 

 fig. 89. 



Myctophum (Nyctophus) lacerta Brauer, Zool. Anz., 1904, 28, p. 392. 



The species described by Poey as Myctophum nocturnum from Havana, 

 Cuba, has not been identified by subsequent writers. Nothing has been 

 certainly known of its characters and relationships except what can bo 

 drawn from the original description, and the latter unfortunately contains 

 no account of the number and distribution of the photophores. By 

 Jordan and Evermann, the species is placed provisionally in Collettia 

 (= Diaphus), these authors remarking : " Probably a species of Collettia, 

 and apparently related to C. rafinesquei, but this is not certain." As 

 Brauer makes no mention of the species in his review of the genus 

 Myctophum, apparently he has considered its affinities too uncertain for 

 conjecture. 



Among the Myctophids of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 

 are two lots received from Professor Poey and labeled M. nocturnum, 

 apparently in Poey's own handwriting. They represent two very dis- 

 tinct species, for one of which, as it is apparently uudescribed, the 

 name Diaphus garmani is here proposed. The four specimens (No. 

 6873), constituting the type and cotypes, differ to such an extent from 



