18 



C.J. FERRARIS, JR. 



description, or in variance with the illustration. Although Jayaram 

 ( 1 966) followed Vinciguerra ( 1 890) in placing Rita sacerdotum into 

 the synonymy of Rita rita, he place the specimens he examined from 

 the Ayeyarwaddy into a second species of Rita. I have been unable, 

 so far, to find any specimens that represented a second species from 

 Myanmar. Clearly, an examination of the holotype of Rita sacerdotum 

 was necessary to determine whether it indeed represented a species 

 of Rita different from the one that I, and others, have observed. 



THE HOLOTYPE OF RITA SACERDOTUM 

 ANDERSON 



Anderson (1878 [1879]) did not indicate where the holotype of Rita 

 sacerdotum, or any of the other species described in the same paper, 

 were deposited. Although I expected to find the specimen in The 

 Natural History Museum, London, the holotype was not listed in its 

 type catalog, and there was no entry for R. sacerdotum in their 

 species catalog. In fact, no specimen of Rita collected by Anderson 

 was listed in the catalog. An exhaustive search through the registers 

 did uncover a Rita sacerdotum collected by Anderson, without any 

 indication that it was a holotype. With the assistance of the staff of 

 the Fish Section of the Zoology Department, the specimen was 



found among the collection of stuffed, dried fish specimens. Its 

 identity as the holotype was promptly made by comparsion of the 

 stated locality information and by direct comparision with the 

 published illustration. 



It is puzzling that the specimen was never recognized as the 

 holotype of Rita sacerdotum. Although the specimen was registered 

 in 1875, prior to Anderson's publication, the register entry (BMNH 

 1875.8.4.7) lists the name and is surrounded by entries for the other 

 species named by Anderson. It is even more suprising that although 

 the specimen was registered with the new name during Albert 

 Gunther's tenure, he did not include the specimen in his personal 

 annotated copy of his catalog (Giinther, 1868) or annotate the 

 register entry to indicate that the specimen was a holotype. Nonethe- 

 less, with the discovery of the holotype, it is now possible to clarify 

 some peculiar features in the illustration of Rita sacerdotum and, 

 with that information, finally resolve the identity of the Ayeyarwaddy 

 Rita. 



The holotype of Rita sacerdotum is a dried, stuffed specimen, 69 

 cm in standard length (Figure 2). The specimen appears to have been 

 placed on display at two different times, based on the fact that the 

 stuffed skin has two forms of wire attachments. One set of mounts, 

 extending from the ventral surface of the body, indicate that the 

 specimen was at one time mounted freestanding, probably on a 



Fig. 2 Rita sacerdotum Anderson, holotype, 69 cm, BMNH 1 875.8.4.7. 



Fig. 3 Published illustration of holotype of Rita sacerdotum, reproduced from Anderson ( 1 878 [ 1 879], pi. 79, Fig. 3). 



