A Revision of the Curimatlnce. 409 



XVIII. — A Revision of the Edentulous Genera of Gurimatince, 



BY CARL H. EIGEJ^MAKis^ AND R. S. EIGENMAKN. 

 Read May 13th, 1889. 



This revision is based on the collections in the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology of Harvard University. 



It was our intention to write a complete revision of the Cha- 

 racinidae. The enormous amount of material collected in the 

 Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge, Mass., together 

 with the excellent library there, render sucb a work, based on 

 this collection, greatly to be desired, both for ichthyology in 

 general and for the collections of this Museum in particular. 

 Unfortunately, our work was interrupted shortly after it was 

 begun. 



Professor Louis Agassiz, under whose direction this material 

 was accumulated, has been frequently criticised for his seemingly 

 extravagant statements regarding the number of new species 

 found by himself and his assistants during the Thayer expedi- 

 tion in Brazil. Although Professor Agassiz may have been mis- 

 led by the necessarily hasty comparisons made while collecting, 

 it is due to his memory to state that he was far nearer the truth 

 than has generally been supposed. Few of the new species dis- 

 covered by Professor Agassiz were based on his specimens. 

 Many of them had been collected before by batterer, though 

 they had not been described when Professor Agassiz made his 

 collection; and Dr. Steindachner has based many of his new 

 species on Natterer^s specimens preferably to those of Agassiz. 

 Since Prof. Agassiz made his expedition, many others have col- 

 lected in Brazil, and their specimens have been described by 

 Doctors Giinther, Boulenger, Steindachner, Cope, Gill, and 

 others; while Professor Agassiz's material remained untouched 

 at Cambridge, In spite of these facts, there yet remain one or 

 two hundred undescribed species of Characinidse alone, in the 

 Museum at Cambridge, if we may judge from the Erythrininae 

 and Curimatinae which we examined. Our studies of the Nema- 



