Contributions from the Biological Laboratory of the U. S. Fish Commission, 
Woods Hole, Massachusetts. 
NOTICE OF A FILEFISH NEW TO THE FAUNA OF THE UNITED STATES. 
By HUGH M. SMITH. 
Ou August 22, 1898, there was taken at Woods Hole, Mass., a small filetish of 
the genus Ahitera, which represents a species heretofore not recorded from the coast 
of the United States. The specimen was obtained by Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, a well- 
known collector of the United States Fish Commission, to whose activity a number of 
other additions to the fish fauna of the Atlantic seaboard of the United States have 
been due. The fish was undoubtedly a straggler from the West Indies, like so many 
others stranded at Woods Hole by the agency of the Gulf Stream. Active search was 
made for other specimens, but without success. 
It was seen that the specimen was apparently referable to AJutera monoceron, a 
widely distributed tilelish of the Indo-Pacitic Ocean, but as none of the museums in 
the United States had examples of that fish, and as the published descriptions and 
plates did not strictly apply, the status of the Woods Hole fish could not at first be 
satisfactorily determined. Kecently, however, through the courtesy of Dr. G. A. 
Bouleuger, of the British Museum,. the Fish Commission has been supplied with a 
specimen of Ahitera monoceros from the East Indies, and it has been possible to 
establish the identity of the fish in question. 
The following detailed description of the specimen under consideration is i)re- 
sented because it has features which have not been noted in other descriptions of the 
species. The form and life colors of the fish are accurately shown in the accompany- 
ing plate, which represents the natural size of the specimen and is based on a drawing- 
made under the direction of Dr. H. C. Bumpus while it was still alive: 
Total length of specimen, 145 millimeters; length to base of candal, 120 millimeters. Body very 
much compressed, deeper than in the common tilelish (A. schoepjii) of the same length, its greatest depth 
contained 2.4 times in length to base of caudal. Head, measured from anterior end of branchial 
opening, contained 4 times in body length. Snout short, somewhat produced, the lower jaw slightly 
projecting, the muzzle rounded. Eye 0.25 length of head and slightly less than supraorbital space. 
Posterior end of gill-opening under posterior edge of pupil ; length of branchial slit 1.4 times diameter 
of eye. Profile from dorsal spine to a point on level with pupil convex, upper side of snout straight. 
Between dorsal spine and beginning of dorsal fin is a slight depression. The ventral surface, from 
a point near the mouth to a point slightly in advance of anal tin, presents a well-marked protuberance 
with an irregular wavy outliue. Between this protuberance and the anal fin is a distinct notch. 
Dorsal i-ays 50, ana] rays 52; both fins very low, their height anteriorly but slightly greater than 
diameterof eye, gradually becoming lower posteriorly. Dorsal s])ine slender, slightly curved backward, 
inserted directly above pupil, twice diameter of eye, and contained 3.5 times in greatest body depth. 
273 
P. C. B.,189S— 18 
