PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 345 



ON THE IDENTITY OF EUCH AJL AKO017S PUTlVAini, GQLL, WITH 

 PLEFBONECTES GLABEB, (STOREK) GILI., WITH NOTES ON THE 

 HABITS OF THE SPECIES. 



By TARiETON II. BEAN. 



In October, 1864, Prof. Gill described a remarkable new genus of 

 pleuronectoids under the name of Euchalarodus,* from specimens sent 

 to him from Salem, Massachusetts, by Prof. F. W. Putnam, which has 

 ever since been considered an anomaly among flat-fishes. Euchalarodus 

 Putnami is little known except through the excellent description of its 

 founder, the few specimens collected being shared by only two museums — 

 that of the Peabody Academy, Salem, and the TJ. S. National Museum. 

 In contrasting Euclialarodus with other American^ genera of Pleuronec- 

 tinse, Prof. Gill says:t "From the American genera Pseudopleuronectes, 

 Blkr., Liopsetta,[l] Gill, Myzopsetta, Gill, and Limanda, Gottsche, it is at 

 least distinguished by its squamation, oculo- scapular ridge, nostrils, 

 dentition and structure of the dorsal and anal fins. It is most nearly 

 related to Pleuronectes,[§] with which it agrees in the free tongue, but 

 the more perfect union and the triangular form of the wholly united 

 lower pharyngeal bones, the want of an anal spine, and, above all, the 

 movable teeth and scarcely perforate anterior nasal tubes will especially 

 distinguish it, not only from that genus, but from any other known one. 

 So anomalous indeed are the characters of dentition and nostrils, that 

 only after I had felt each tooth could I be convinced that they were 

 really normally movable, and that the condition was not the effect of 

 disease, an idea which, improbable as it was, occurred to me. The re- 

 maining genera of the subfamily of Pleuronectinse — Platiclithys, Grd., 

 Parophrys, Grd., Lepidopsetta, Gill, Glyptocephalus, Gottsche, Microsto- 

 mas, Gottsche, Pleuroniehthys, Grd., Hypsopsetta, Gill, Hetcroprosopon, 

 Blkr., and Clidoderma, Blkr.— are equally or still more distinct than 

 those already mentioned." 



From the above and from an examination of the types it is evident 

 that we should compare Euclialarodus with Pleuronectes. This I have 

 done, employing for the purpose the types of the description of Eucha- 

 larodus Putnami, Gill, and specimens of Pleuronectes glaber, (Storer) Gill, 

 and Pleuronectes platessa, Linn. My investigations force me to the con- 

 clusion that these are all members of one and the same genus, Pleuro- 

 nectes, since they possess in common the characters of that genus as 

 defined by Bleeker, as well as those by which Euchalarodus was differ- 

 entiated from Pleuronectes. Euchalarodus. by the way. has an anal spine. 



* Proc. Acad. Nat, Sci. Philad. 18G4, pp. 221 and 222. 

 t Op. cit. p. 222. 



[t] The Platessa glabra of Storer, for the accommodation of which this gonna was 

 proposed, has since been referred to the genus Pleuronectes (Art. ) Bleeker, by Prof. Gill. 



[§ ] Pleuronectes (Art. ) Bleeker, Verslagen en Mededeelingen dcr kouinklijko Akadomie 

 van Wetenschappen, Deel xiii, Amsterdam, 1832, pp. 427, 428. 



