Ophichthid Eels — GOSLINE 
311 
rial respects with the excellent description of 
the species given by Schultz and Woods. I 
can find in the Midway specimen no em- 
bedded teeth on the premaxillary, suggested 
as a possibility by these authors; in fact, an 
adnate upper lip covers the area in which such 
teeth might be expected. 
The species is known only from the records 
listed above. 
2. Muraenichthys (Muraenichthys) 
schultzei Bleeker 
Muraenichthys schultzei Bleeker (1857: 366) 
(South Java); Fowler and Ball (1925: 5) 
(Johnston Island); Fowler (1928: 41) 
(Johnston Island). 
MATERIAL EXAMINED: 8 Specimens, 77-99 
mm., of the 12 recorded by Fowler and Ball 
and by Fowler from Johnston Island in the 
Bishop Museum. 
Except for the specimens listed above, the 
species is unknown in the Hawaiian Islands. 
3. Muraenichthys (Muraenichthys) 
cookei Fowler 
Figs. 3, 10^, \2h, 13 
? Muraenichthys gymnopterus [non Bleeker], 
Fowler (1928: 40) (Hawaiian Islands). 
Muraenichthys cookei Fowler (1928: 41, fig. 9) 
(Oahu); Schultz and Woods (1949: 172). 
Muraenichthys laticaudata^ Schultz [in part] 
(1943: 53); Fowler (1949: 44). 
MATERIAL EXAMINED: 10 Specimens from 
Oahu, 1 from Kauai, and 7 from Midway, all 
in the University of Hawaii Collection; 
Fig. 12. a. Roof of mouth of Muraenichthys {Schult- 
zidia) johnstonensis\ h, of Muraenichthys {Muraenichthys') 
cookei. 
Fowler’s type of the species in the Bishop 
Museum. 
Fig. 13. Head of Muraenichthys {Muraenichthys) 
cookei. As in subsequent figures, the lateral line pores 
of the head are shown and those of the middorsal line 
are indicated by arrows. 
The distinction between M. cookei and M. 
laticaudata is not as clear as one might wish or 
as Schultz and Woods’s key might indicate. 
In my material of M. cookei the dorsal usually 
commences as much as one-third of a head 
length ahead of the anus, but is sometimes 
directly over the anus. In M. laticaudata the 
dorsal usually begins behind, but sometimes 
over or even slightly before the anus. There 
are no other readily apparent characters to 
distinguish the two species. 
M. cookei is limited to the Hawaiian Islands 
and is doubtless a derivative of Af . laticaudata. 
The Hawaiian offshoot is not rare. It ap- 
parently buries itself in sand-filled pockets on 
a coralline-rock bottom. 
CAECULA Vahl 
Vertical fins absent or feebly developed; if 
present, the dorsal commences behind the 
level of the gill openings. No pectoral fins in 
Pacific species. 
Subgenus Caecula: with at least rudimentary 
vertical fins. 
Subgenus Sphagehranchus: wholly finless. 
The definition, and consequently the limits, 
of the genus Caecula are agreed upon by no 
two authors as far as I know. Whether the 
generic characterization given above is any 
better than many others previously proposed 
can be determined only from an examination 
of the many species in the group. 
4. Caecula (Sphagehranchus) flavicauda 
(Snyder) 
Table 3 and Fig. lAa,c 
