A Review of American Diodontidce. 303 



lifiirosKs on Laeep6de*s description of his '" Le diodon tachete." 

 Lacepede describes merely the coloring- of this specimen, giving 

 general statements about the spines; this leaves it uncertain 

 which species he had. All ihe references of authors to Hturosus 

 are equally doubtful, except in the few eases where the speci- 

 mens have been especially described. The spinosissimus of Cu- 

 vier is a holacanthus. and the fact that Giinther refers his speci- 

 mens to the holacanthus seems to indicate that they belong there, 

 although he does not mention in his description the prolonga- 

 tion of the frontal spines. The descriptions of novemmaculatus , 

 sexmaculatus, quadrimaculatus and miiltimacitlatus, are none of 

 them so exact as to leave no doubt as to the species intended ; 

 although in all these cases I think it likely that holacanthus is 

 meant rather than the young of hystrix. Diodon maculatus 

 var. a Giinther is certainly a holacanthus ; var. /? is a hystrix. 

 The others I can not certainly identify. 



The specimens examined by me are from Havana. 



If, as is possible, this is only a variation of the young of hys- 

 trix, all the foregoing synonymy should be referred to the latter. 

 At present I think the probabilities are in favor of absolute iden- 

 tity of the two forms, but pending the settlement of this ques- 

 tion, it has seemed best to group the synonymy as above. 



I give below a tabulated account of the different specimens 

 examined by me, and those described by various writers, which 

 seem referable to Diodon hystrix and D. holacanthus. The ex- 

 tent of the variations in the diagnostic characters will appear 

 from this account. 



A. Armature of the tail. 



b. In specimens described b}' authors, and referred bj r me to Diodon 

 hystrix. 



1. D. punctatus Cuvier. " Autour de la queue il y en a quatre (epines) qui 



la rendent comme prismatique." 



2. D. hystrix Giinther. The upper and lower sides of the tail with two or 



three pairs of immovable spines." 



3. D. hystrix Klunzinger. " Der vordere Theil des Sclrwanzes ist besta- 



chelt, die Stacheln daselbst nicht dicht, die hintere Halfte desselben 

 nackt. Stacheln neben dem Schwanzrlicken je 3-4, an den Seiten des 

 Schwanzes meist 2, und eben so viele neben der Bauchseite des 

 Schwanzes." 



