PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM r55UC(/ i^?(\A^O?Mij by (he SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 1C6 Washington: 1956 No. 3365 ANEW PINECONE FISH, MONOCENTKIS REEDI, FROM CHILE, A NEW FAMILY RECORD FOR THE EASTERN PACIFIC By Leonard P. Schultz Dr. Edwyn P. Reed ^ recentl_y sent to me for identification a plioto-graph of, and later at my request the dried specimen of, a pineconc fish of the family Monocentridac taken off the coast of Chile in the Juan Fernandez Islands at a depth of 200 to 250 meters. A j>hoto-graph of the specimen was also sent to H. W. Fov/ler, who puhlished a note entitled "The Pinecone Fish, Alonocentris jajwnicus (Houttiiyn) at Juan Fernandes, Southeast Pacific" (Fish Culturist, reference below). This unique specimen represents the first record for the family in the eastern Pacific. L^pon comparison of the specimen with the three other known species referred to the family, I observed that it differed in several characteristics and represented a new species. The occurrence in the eastern American Pacific of another of the tropical central-western Pacific fauna indicates once more that the eastern Pacific fish fauna is more closely related to that of the Indo-Pacific than formerly supposed. These two faunas have difrerentiated mostly on the species level and less so at the generic level. > Chief of the biological departmeut, Direccion Geucral do Pesca y Gaza, Valparaiso, Chile. 377498-66 237
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