's RIJKS MUSEUM VAN NATUURLIJKE HISTORIE — LEIDEN. 69 



in which he used the name Gastrotokeus, we asked the late Dr. F. 

 Steindachner for information. He was kind enough to inform us, 

 that in the Museum of Yienna, then under his charge, there is a bottle 

 containing 2 specimens of B 1 o c h ' s Syngnatkus biaculeatus with the 

 label: „Gasterotokeus biaculeatus Heck. 1845, III. 24 Neu Guinea". 

 Dr. Steindachner writes : „ Zweifellos hat H e c k e 1 an Dr. K a u p , 

 als dieser zur Bearbeitung der Lophobranchier sich entschlossen hatte, 

 mehrere Exemplare dieser Art als Gasterot. biaculeatus zugesendet und 

 der Empfânger, der Sitte der Zeit entsprechend, den von Heck el vor- 

 geschlagenen Gattungsnamen beibehalten, da ja doch H eek el zuerst 

 die Notwendigkeit einer generischen Trennung der Bloch'schen Art 

 Syn. biaculeatus von Syngnatkus erkannt hatte". 



Gastrotokeus Heckel is therefore a museum name and it dates only 

 from the year 1853, when Kaup published the first description of it. 

 Syngnathoides Bleeker is evidently the older name provided with a suf- 

 ficient diagnosis. 



An other question is connected with the specific name „biaculeatus" 

 introduced in 1785 by Bloch (Ausl. Fische i. 1785, p. 10; plate 121, 

 fig. 1) when he described his Syngnatkus biaculeatus. The question is 

 if this name is older than the name „tetragonus" given by C. P. Thun- 

 berg to a Syngnatkus, which he described in his article „Beskrifning 

 pâ Syngnatkus tetragonus, en obekant Fisk ifran Java", and which is 

 identical with Syngnatkus aculeatus Bloch. The article of Thunberg 

 appeared in Physiographisk Selskabets Handlingar, Lund t. I, which was 

 edited between 1776 and 1786. As the article of Thunberg appears on 

 page 301 of that volume it was possible that it was published before 

 1785. Prof. Einar Lönnberg of Stockholm was kind enough to in- 

 form us, that part 4 of the first volume contained the articles 28 — 33 

 and was distributed in May 1786. It is therefore probable that Thun- 

 berg' s article (N°. 30) appeared already in 1785 or even earlier and 

 that therefore his name S. tetragonus is prior to S. biaculeatus Bloch. 

 One is the more inclined to that supposition as in the 13th edition of 

 Linné' s Syst. nat. edited in 1788 by 6m e lin the species in question 

 is called on p. 1453 Syngnatkus tetragonus and Thunberg is quoted 

 as author, while Syngnatkus biaculeatus Bloch is quoted as a synonym. 

 But it cannot be proven that G m el in was right in doing so, for Prof. 

 Lönnberg had the kindness to ask the present secretary of the Phy- 

 siographic Society of Lund for further information. He kindly informed 

 us, that the ,. protocol" of the Society contains nothing about the date 

 of -Thunberg' s article. As no further information is available, there 

 is no reason to abolish the timehonoured name S. biaculeatus of Bloch. 



