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Show 748 MR. F. DAY ON THE IDENTITY OF [DeC 1 9, 4. On the Identity of Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, with A. grohmanni. By F R A N C I S D A Y , F.Z.S. [Eeceived November 6, 1882.] (Plate LIII.) In the issue of ' Nature' for October 5th (vol. xxvi. p. 556) will be found a notice that Professor Moseley had obtained off Cardiff a specimen of Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, hitherto known only from two dried skins in the Couch collection, the locality of which was uncertain. This specimen was said to establish the validity of Dr. Giinther's classification of this fish as a distinct British species. The article being unsigned, I have no means of ascertaining who the author of this interesting statement may be ; and while expressing my individual satisfaction that Professor Moseley has clearly obtained a pleuronectoid fish hitherto not recorded from the British seas, I would beg leave to draw attention to a few errors in the article. First, there are three, not two, skins of Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, in the British Museum; secondly, they came from Yarrell's, not from Couch's collection; while, as no doubt can exist of the identity of these skins with Professor Moseley's specimen, I propose to show that Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, is a synonym of Arnoglossus grohmanni, Bonaparte. As, when writing the portion of m y ' British Fishes ' which contains the pleuronectoids, I had to investigate the question of the skins in the British Museum, and whether on such grounds I could recognize Arnoglossus lophotes as a British species, it may be interesting to explain why I was unable to do so. This conclusion I still believe to have been sound ; for I was under tbe impression that the specimens did not constitute a new species, but were identical with the Mediterranean Arnoglossus grohmanni, from which locality I also believed they had been obtained. The references to this fish are as follows:- ARNOGLOSSUS GROHMANNI. (Plate LIII.) Pleuronectes grohmanni, Bonap. Cat. Met. p. 47, no. 401; Fauna Ital., Pesc. tav. 98. fig. 2: Canestrini, Arch, per la Zool. i. p. 12, t. 1. f. 3 (58 scales along the lateral line); Moreau, Poiss. France, iii. p. 326, fig. 185. Arnoglossus grohmanni, Giinther, Catal. iv. p. 417; Giglioli, Catal. Pesc. italiani, p. 38, no. 315. Arnoglossus lophotes, Giinther, Catal. iv. p. 417; Couch, Fish Brit. Isles, iii. p. 178 c. fig. (with abnormal curve to the lateral line). In the ' Catalogue of the Fishes of the British Museum,' iv. p. 417, Dr. Giinther makes Canestrini's fish the same as Bonaparte's. His figure and description agree with Mediterranean specimens which I exhibit, received from Prof. Giglioli of Florence, which are identical with Prof. Moseley's fish. In the 'Catalogue,' I. c. pp. 417-418, |