PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM by the SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 84 Washington: 1937 No. 3008 THE DEEP-SEA ZEOMORPH FISHES OF THE FAMILY GRAMMICOLEPIDAE By George S. Myers Stanford University, California The rarity of the strange oceanic fishes of the family Grammico-lepidae, together with the unique character of their vertically atten-uated scales, has placed them among the greatest desiderata of ichthyological collections. The four nominal species have been re-ferred to three genera, but no previous writer appears to have exam-ined more than one of them. Moreover, the type and supposedly the only known specimen of the first-discovered species seems to be lost, and Poey's original description of it has been misinterpreted. It is therefore of interest to find a fine specimen of Poey's species in the collections brought back by the Johnson-Smithsonian deep-sea expedition, as well as three examples of Xenolepidichthys dalgleishi, a species hitherto known only from South Africa, among the fishes collected by the U. S. S. Albatross in the Philippines. Prof. Albert E. Parr has been kind enough to allow me to examine Mowbray's types of Grammicolepis squamilineatus in the Bingham Oceano-graphic Collection at Yale University and to bring two of the para-types to Washington for comparison. Finally, I have had at hand Jordan's type of Vesposus egregius, from Hawaii. Tliis material is more varied than that examined by other writers, and it has enabled me to determine that the known specimens of the 92794—36 145
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