Uropterygius Eels — Gosline 
227 
Fig. 2. Heads of holotypes: a, Uropterygius inornatus; 
b, Uropterygius makatei. 
Uropterygius makatei new species 
Table 2, Figs, if, 2 b 
holotype: (Only known specimen.) U.S. 
N.M. 175008, 230 mm. in total length, taken 
just west of the phosphate dock, Makatea, 
northern Tuamotus, over reef flat and in surge 
channel, Mar. 15, 1956, by John E. Randall. 
A short-jawed, heavy-headed, stocky Urop- 
terygius. The tail is bluntly pointed with the 
terminal rays well developed for the genus. 
The posterior nostril has a rudimentary rim 
and opens above the middle of the eye; there 
is no lateral-line pore near it. The small eye 
lies over the middle of the gape which is very 
short, contained almost four times in the head 
length. The usual lateral-line pores of the 
genus are present. The gill opening is very 
low, almost ventrally directed. 
The teeth in the inner maxillary, premaxil- 
lary, and mandibular rows are moderately en- 
larged and fanglike. The vomerine teeth are 
smaller and essentially similar in size to those 
on the outer rows of the jaws. 
The ground color is light with brown reticu- 
lations darkest on the snout and back, present 
on the mandible and lower surface of the body 
posteriorly, and almost completely lacking on 
the belly, which is plain gray. The anterior 
nostril and the head pores are of the same 
color as the surrounding areas, but the pos- 
terior nostril has a rather narrow white rim. 
Uropterygius makatei seems to have shorter 
jaws in relation to the head length than any 
of the others taken up here. It also has the gill 
openings lower on the sides. This latter char- 
acter places it with U. knighti in the key, but it 
has more of the look and coloration of U. 
micropterus. This last species has far longer 
jaws and more numerous teeth than U. ma- 
katei, however. In tooth pattern, the new spe- 
cies belongs with U. concolor and U. xanthopterus . 
Named makatei for the island at which it 
was taken. 
Uropterygius knighti (Jordan and Starks) 
Table 1 , Fig. 1 g 
type locality: Samoa. 
synonym: Uropterygius reidi Schultz with 
type locality, Tau Island, Samoan group. Two 
specimens from the Tuamotus and one from 
Wake Island seem typical of the species; in- 
numerable specimens from Hawaii, the Tua- 
motus, and Wake are provisionally identified 
with it. 
The last section of Schultz’s key (1953: 143, 
section 22b) seems to require comment. It 
leads to two species: U. necturus (Jordan and 
Gilbert) from the Gulf of California, and U. 
knighti (Jordan and Starks). Now according 
to Jordan and Evermann (1896: 404) U. nec- 
turus has ’'a pore situated just above the pos- 
terior nostril.” If this is so, U. necturus is not a 
Uropterygius at all but an Anarchias. As for U. 
knighti , it is keyed by Schultz as having the 
"lower jaw notably barred or reticulated with 
brown”; however, Jordan and Starks’ figure 
(in Jordan and Seale, 1906: 205, fig. 10) shows 
the whole lower jaw unpigmented and their 
description states that the mandible is white 
below. If this is true, there is little left to dis- 
