PROC. BIOL. SOC. WASH. 102(4), 1989, pp. 1001-1017 ELLERKELDIA, A JUNIOR SYNONYM OF HYPOPLECTRODES, WITH REDESCRIPTIONS OF THE TYPE SPECIES OF THE GENERA (PISCES: SERRANIDAE: ANTHIINAE) William D. Anderson, Jr. and Phillip C. Heemstra Abstract. —Characters that may prove useful in defining the serranid subfam-ily Anthiinae are briefly discussed, and a single synapomorphy, vertebral num-ber, that unites the species of Hypoplectrodes is recognized. Ellerkeldia is con-sidered a junior synonym of Hypoplectrodes', the relationships of Hypoplectrodes are discussed; the type species (Plectropoma semicinctum and P. nigrorubrum) of the two nominal genera are redescribed; and Scopularia rubra is demon-strated to be a junior synonym of//, semicinctum. Hypoplectrodes semicinctum is known from shallow waters off Juan Fernandez and San Felix islands, and has been reported from Easter Island; H. nigroruber has been collected from shallow Pacific and Indian ocean waters off southeastern, southern, and south-western Australia. Some years ago, after examining the orig-inal descriptions of Plectropoma semicinc-tum and Scopularia rubra, one of us (PCH) concluded that the two species are synon-ymous. More recently the senior author ex-amined the holotype of P. semicinctum, compared it with the original description of S. rubra, and arrived at the same conclu-sion. In view of the similarities of the de-scriptions in the literature of species of El-lerkeldia and of Hypoplectrodes nigroruber, the senior author examined the syntypes of H. nigroruber and determined that this species is congeneric with P. semicinctum. Because H. nigroruber is the type (and until now the only) species of Hypoplectrodes and P. semicinctum is the type species of Eller-keldia, it follows that Hypoplectrodes and Ellerkeldia are subjective synonyms. The purposes of this paper are to redescribe Hy-poplectrodes nigroruber and H. semicinctum and to document the assertions of synony-my made above. Abbreviations and Methods Institutional abbreviations are as listed in Leviton et al. (1985); ICZN denotes the In-ternational Code of Zoological Nomencla-ture (International Commission on Zoolog-ical Nomenclature 1985); SL signifies standard length and TL, total length. Methods for making counts and mea-surements are those of Anderson & Heem-stra (1980), except as noted below. Scales below the lateral line were counted oblique-ly, both in posterodorsal and anterodorsal directions from the origin of the anal fin (the posterodorsal direction is apparently the di-rection used by de Buen (1959) on Scopu-laria rubra). Instead of scales in the lateral line, de Buen (1959) gave counts of scales in a lon-gitudinal line. We interpret this to mean scales along the body in a mid-lateral line to base of caudal fin. It is difficult to get repeatable counts in a single longitudinal
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