's RIJKS MUSEUM VAN NATUURLIJKE HISTORIE — LEIDEN. 65 



name petimba, used by Lacépède 1 ) for a specimen of Fistularia col- 

 lected by Com mer so n in the indo-pacific region and of which Lacé- 

 pède could dispose. 



Günther 2 ) had treated it as a synonym. of F. tabaccaria, in which 

 he was wrong, as Lacépède states, that it is immaculate, and that the 

 lateral ridges of the snout „sont dentelés comme les bords d'une scie". 



F. petimba Lac. belongs therefore to the group serrata Cuv. (= ser- 

 rata sensu Grunther and depressa Günther). 



The new question now to be solved, is to which of the two F. pe- 

 timba Lac. belongs. 



Jordan & Evermann 3 ) united it with serrata sensu Gfünther, an 

 opinion already formerly expressed by Jordan & Gilbert 4 ), main- 

 tained by Jordan & Snyder 5 ) and by Jordan & Starks ) in a 

 complete diagnosis of the two species. 



This opinion was -also accepted by Junger sen 7 ) and by M. Weber 8 ). 



This nomenclature underwent again a change by Jenkins 9 ), who 

 quoted, without any explanation of bis motives, F. depressa Gthr. as 

 synonymous with F. petimba Lac. and again used the name serrata Cuv. 

 with petimba Jordan & Sn. as synonym. This proceeding was furtheron 

 accepted in the numerous lists of fishes published by Jordan and his 

 collaborators f. i. by Jordan & Evermann 10 ). 



Renewed study of the representatives of Fistularia and of the descrip- 

 tions of Lacépède has converted us to acknowledge the view that in- 

 deed F. petimba Lac. is identical with depressa Günther and not with 

 serrata sensu Günther. One of us had formerly embraced the opposite older 

 opinion of Jordan & Starks, as Lacépède 11 ) says in his diagnosis: 

 „La ligne latérale est droite; elle est, de plus, dentelée depuis F anus 



1) Lacépède, Hist, Nat. Poissons V. 1803, p. 349. 



2) Günther, Cat. Brit. Mus. III. 1859—1861 p. 529. 



. 3) Jordan & Evermann, Fishes North and Middle America I, 1896, p. 758. 



4) Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis Fishes North America, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus. N°. 16 

 (1882) 1883, p. 390. 



5) Jordan & Snyder, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Wash. vol. XXIII. 1900, p. 350. 



6) Jordan & Starks, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. Wash. vol. XXVI. 1902, p. 67. 



7) H. Jungersen, Ichthyotomical Contributions II. Vidensk. Selsk. Skr. Kjobenhavn (7) 

 afd. VIII. 5, 1910, p. 280, 336. 



8) M. Weber, Siboga-Expeditie, Fische, 1913, p. 101. 



9) Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. XXII. (1902) 1904, p. 437. 



10) Jordan & Evermann, Shore-fishes. Hawaiian Islands. Bull. U. S. Fish Comm. 

 XXIII. (1903) 1905, p. 116. 



11) Lacépède, Hist. Nat. Poissons V. 1803, p. 351. 



5 



(18-vin-mi) 



