A New Hawaiian Percoid Fish, Suttonia lineata , with a Discussion of Its 
Relationships and a Definition of the Family Grammistidae 1 
William A. Gosline 2 
The immediate relationships of the fish de- 
scribed here appear clear cut. However, the sys- 
tematic position of the "pseudogrammid” group 
of genera to which it belongs is a matter of con- 
siderable controversy; the greater part of the 
present paper will be devoted to this subject. 
The "pseudogrammid” genera (Table 1) are 
made up of a small number of serranid-like 
fishes which for the moment may be sufficiently 
defined as having a single enlarged ( though fre- 
quently concealed) spine at the upper end of 
the preopercular border (Fig. 2a), and an in- 
complete or interrupted lateral line. Four genera 
are included in the group; they may be dis- 
tinguished as follows: 
1 Preopercular spine directed down- 
ward (this character not recorded 
for Rhegma gregoryi or Pseudo- 
gramma guineensis) 2 
Preopercular spine directed some- 
what upward. No large lateral line 
pores between the eyes; in the 
adult Aporops biline arts there is 
a frilled collar behind the tube 
of the anterior nostril, and just 
ahead of the preopercular spine 
is a small patch of glandular tis- 
sue that may bear black, hairlike 
processes Aporops 
2(1) No tentacle over the eye 3 
A single, fleshy tentacle over each 
eye Rhegma 
1 Contribution No. 120, Hawaii Marine Laboratory 
in cooperation with the Department of Zoology and 
Entomology. 
2 Department of Zoology and Entomology, Univer- 
sity of Hawaii. Manuscript received April 29 , 1958 . 
3(2) Preopercular spine broad-based and 
triangular (Fig. 2a) 
Pseudogramma 
Preopercular spine elongate and 
downwardly curved (Fig. 1) 
Suttonia 
Aporops appears to be rather distinct from 
the other three genera. Whether Rhegma and 
Suttonia should be considered as more than sub- 
genera of Pseudogramma is open to question. 
Genus Suttonia Smith, 1953 
type species: Suttonia suttoni Smith, 1953 
(East Africa). The only other species attributed 
to the genus is the one described below. 
Suttonia was differentiated by Smith (1953: 
549) from Pseudogramma and Aporops as fol- 
lows: "Scales all cycloid. Preopercular spine 
large, sabre shaped and trough like. Nasal 
tube longer than interorbital width. Interorbitai 
mostly naked. Palatines subparallel. A single 
lateral line ” Aside from the fact that in the 
Hawaiian specimens the palatines are not par- 
ticularly subparallel, there seems to be little to 
add or subtract from Smith’s diagnosis. 
Suttonia lineata new species 
Fig. 1 and Table 1 
holotype: USNM 177950, 78 mm. in stand- 
ard length, collected with a commercial fish 
poison off the Waianae coast of Oahu, Feb. 3, 
1958, by Gosline, Takata, et al in 10-12 fathoms, 
of water. 
paratypes: UH 2460, 5 specs., 36-72 mm.,, 
with the same data as the holotype. 
There are VI dorsal spines in the holotype,. 
VII in all five paratypes. In the larger specimens. 
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