Fish Fauna of Johnston Is. — Gosline 
447 
part of body are plain brown, the brownish 
color made up of minute, regularly spaced 
punctulations. In addition U. fuscoguttatus has 
a somewhat longer snout; the distance be- 
tween the posterior margin of the eye and the 
most posterior maxillary tooth is considerably 
less than the distance from the tip of the snout 
to the posterior nostril (in U. dentatus these 
two distances are about equal). In U. dentatus 
the two jaws are about equal, and the distance 
from the tip of chin to the most posterior 
mandibular tooth is contained about 2.4 times 
in the head length; in U. fuscoguttatus the 
lower jaw is very slightly inferior, and the 
distance from the tip of the chin to the last 
mandibular tooth is contained about 2.7 
times in the head length. There are also many 
more teeth in U. dentatus than in U. fuscogut- 
tatus but since the teeth are multiserial in both 
species, this difference is difficult to quantify. 
The features listed above would be adequate 
for distinguishing the two species if they were 
the same size. Unfortunately they are not. 
The largest known specimen of U. fuscogut- 
tatus is one from Hawaii measuring 285 mm.; 
the smallest of the three known specimens 
of U. dentatus is 363 mm. 
Uropterygius polyspilus Regan 
2 specs., 150 and 180 mm., 1951. 
Anus very slightly behind middle of the 
total length; prominent, roundish dark spots 
on a light brown background; tip of snout 
white in alcohol, yellow in life. 
Uropterygius tigrinus (Lesson) 
2 specs., 670 and 680 mm., 1951. As Gym- 
nomuraena tigrina , Smith and Swain, 1882, 
1 spec. 
Anus far behind middle of total length; 
prominent, roundish dark spots on a light 
brown background; snout of the same color 
as the rest of the body but speckled rather 
than spotted. 
BELONIDAE 
Belone platyura Bennett 
1 spec., 295 mm., 1951. Halstead and 
Bunker, 1954, 1 spec. As Belone persimilis, 
Schultz, et al ., 1953, 4 specs. 
The relationship between Belone platyura 
and B. persimilis needs clarification. B. persi- 
milis was first differentiated from B. platyura 
by Gunther (1909: 340, text fig.) on the basis 
of the smaller eye. In order to demonstrate 
this, Gunther compared the eye size with the 
interorbital and with the postorbital head 
length in the two species (Table 1). In 1943 
Schultz (p. 54) placed B. persimilis in the 
synonymy of B. platyura , stating: "After 
measuring a large series of specimens of the 
large-eyed form B. platyura and many of the 
small-eyed form named by Gunther B . per- 
similis, , I am of the opinion that when small 
this species has a small eye and when larger 
the eye is much larger in proportion." In 
1953 Schultz (p. 160) reseparated the two 
nominal species on the basis of eye size and 
the relatively shorter postorbital head length 
of B. persimilis. He compared these two char- 
acters with one another and each of them with 
the distance between the pelvic insertion and 
the anal origin in the two species (Table 1). 
Whereas Gunther believed the two species 
occurred together over a wide area, Schultz 
(1953, loc. cit.) considered all of his Marshall- 
ese material to represent B. platyura and all of 
the Johnston (and by inference Hawaiian) 
specimens to be B. persimilis. 
Counts and measurements of the six spec- 
imens available to me are given in Table 1. 
Aside from the characters listed, an attempt 
was made to find others which might be used 
for differentiating two species. For example, 
the length of the anal base was compared with 
the postanal length, but it was found that this 
comparison merely demonstrated the differ- 
ence in the number of anal rays. Again, the 
Johnston and the larger Hawaiian specimen 
at present lack cheek scales whereas the other 
four have such scales, but this may be an 
artifact of preservation. At first it was thought 
possible to separate a long, narrow-headed 
species from one with a relatively short and 
broad head (the smaller Hawaiian and the 
