Marine Bioio^jical Ur):>f.,ioiy I'IBSI >v » Y MAR 1 9 1951 WOODS HOLE, MA.9S. PROCEEDINGS OF THE CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Fourth Series Vol. XXVII, No. 2, pp. 17-64 March 7, 1951 NOTES ON THE CHARACID FISHES OF THE SUBFAMILY SERRASALMINAE^ BY WILLIAM A. GOSLINE2 University of Hawaii, Honolulu, Territory of Hawaii Introduction The serrasalmine characins are comparatively well known among South American fishes from several points of view. The ferocity of several of the "piranhas" or "pirayas" of the genus Serrasahnus has made these fishes notorious ; their attacks upon man are well attested and apparently not in-frequent (Eigenmann, 1915, pp. 227-233). On the other hand, the members of the Serrasalminae are themselves used as food, and various aspects of their natural history have entered the literature (Eigenmann and Allen, 1942, pp. 242-245, 252). Certain of the smaller species are also known to aquarists, who have imported them from time to time (Innes, 1942, pp. 160-165). The limits of the Serrasalminae as here dealt with are those assigned by British authors to the Serrasalmonina (Giinther, 1864, p. 366) or Serra-salmoninae^ (Boulenger, 1904, p. 576; Regan, 1911, p. 17; and Xorman, 1929). American authors, on the other hand, have usually followed Eigen-mann in breaking up the group into two subfamilies: (1) Serrasalminae (sensu stricto); (2) Mylesinae (Eigenmann, 1903, p. 147), Myleinae 1. Submitted for publication August, 1947. 2. Formerly of the Museum of Zoology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan. 3. In the time of Boulenger and Regan the type genus was thought to be Serrasalmo, the genitive of which would be Serrasalmonis. But Lacepede's original spelling of this genus, though classically incorrect, is Serrasahnus, the genitive of which would be Serrasalmi. The subfamily name thus becomes Serrasalminae, not Serrasalmoninae. [17]
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