110 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
especially toward tip of tail, appears some hours after death. (The figure shows alcoholic specimen. ) 
Snout white, angles of mouth brown; iris yellow; no other conspicuous markings. (Jenkins.) 
Dr. Jenkins obtained 3 specimens in 1889, as follows: The type, 17 inches in length, No. 50844, 
U. S. Nat. Mus. (field No. 283), Honolulu; and cotypes, No. 7783, L. S. Jr. Univ. Mus. (field No. 
Fig. 32 . — Echidna leiliala Jenkins; from the type. 
2368), 15.5 inches long; and No. 2752, U. S. Fish Commission (field No. 2369), 12 inches long, all from 
the reef in front of Honolulu. 
It is possible that this species and zonata, zonophxa , obscura, and psalion are all color variations of 
one for which the earliest name is Echidna tritor. 
Echidna leiliala Jenkins, Bull. XT. S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Sept. 23, 1903), 428, fig-. 9, Honolulu. 
? Pcecilophis tritor a Vaillant & Sauvage, Rev. et. Mag. Zool., 3d series, III, 287, 1875, Hawaiian Islands. 
71. Echidna nebulosa (Ahl) . “Puhikdpa.” Plate I. 
Head 3.25 in trunk; tail shorter than head and trunk by a little more than snout and eye; eye 
2.5 in snout and a little over 2 in interorbital space; snout 5.5; interorbital space 6.5; mouth 2.2. 
Body compressed; tail tapering gradually; head large, thick, compressed, swollen above, so that 
the upper profile is convex from eyes; snout deep, compressed, rounded, the extremity blunt; eye 
small, high, nearer tip of snout than corner of mouth; mouth horizontal; jaws nearly equal; teeth in 
anterior part of jaws conical, those posterior molardike; anterior nostrils in small tubes, posterior 
pair above the eyes anteriorly; interorbital space convex; gill-opening a little larger than eye; skin 
smooth and tough, with some pores on head; origin of dorsal about midway between posterior edge 
of eye and gill-opening; tip of tail rounded. 
Color, in alcohol, whitish, finely spotted and speckled with blackish brown, crossed by about 27 
cross-bands formed of deep blackisli-brown reticulations, each divided so as to form 2 lateral series; 
spots on lower surface of body more or less solid, and the ground color with fewer small spots 
between; tip of snout and caudal white. This description from a specimen (No. 03774) 29 inches 
long, taken at Honolulu. 
The puhi kdpa is “a kind of eel that makes havoc among all kinds of fish. Hence Kamehameha 
(King of Hawaii) was called ‘Puhi k;ipa’ because ‘victorious over all.’ ” 
a “Tail of same length as body. Branchial opening of same size as eye, surrounded by a black spot more or less 
distinct. Intermaxillary teeth in a single row in front, in two rows behind, conical and quite short; maxillary teeth 
shorter, in two rows; the three anterior vomerine teeth weak, of same size as the intermaxillary teeth, a large vomerine 
plate composed of rounded teeth as those of Daurades, small, numerous, in two rows in front, in six rows in the middle. 
Anterior mandibulary teeth pointed, in two rows; posterior teeth conical, arranged in three series. Anterior 
nostril tubes very short. Angle of mouth black; some horizontal black lines under the throat. Honolulu.” (Vaillant & 
Sauvage.) This brief description is not full enough for certain identification. The species may be identical with 
E. leiliala Jenkins. 
