B R E V I O R A Miiseiiiiii of Comparative Zoology Cambkidge, Mass. I'ebruary 25, 19G6 Number lMO GYMNOTHORAX GALETAE, A NEW MORAY EEL FROM THE ATLANTIC COAST OF PANAMA By Ira Rubinoff Museum of Comparative Zoology, Harvard University The collection of fishes which included this new species was taken by the author in 1962 at Galeta Island on the Atlantic Coast of Panama. The type locality is identical to that from which Rubinoff and Rubinoff (1962) reported several new Pana-manian records of apodes. The fish here described as new is immature and unique. It is nevertheless described because of the proposed construction of a sea-level canal across the Middle-American Isthmus. The removal of this land barrier to interoceanic dispersal places an obligation upon biologists for a thorough pre-canal recording of the popula-tions and distributions of marine fishes in this still relatively poorly studied region. Family MURAENIDAE Genus GymNOTHORAX Bloch 1795 GyMNOTHORAX GALETAE, UCW SpCCicS Figure 1 ^e ' Type locality: Rulnnoff Station No. 79, Galeta Island, 9°24'20"N 79°52'18"W Canal Zone, Atlantic Coast of Panama. Collected at a depth of less than 6 inches from the flat of reef, with ''Pro-Noxfish" that was introduced to the seaward edge of the reef and which was rapidly dispersed over the reef by the flooding tide, 1300 lirs., 25 May 1962. Measurements of the liolotypc (in mm) : MCZ 44035, an im-mature fish. Total length 128, head and trunk 59.0, tail 69, head 16.5. snout 2.7, eye 1.7, depth at gill opening 6.1, depth at anus 5.1, cleft of mouth 6.6, length of gill opening 1.1, fleshy interorbital 2.0, snout to origin of dorsal fin 11.8, diameter of tj'pieal body spot 3.
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