/ y-. (J(& ' — ? Vol. 87, No. 5, pp. 31-40 25 April 1974 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON POT AMORRH APHIS PETERSI, A NEW SPECIES OF FRESHWATER NEEDLEFISH (BELONIDAE) FROM THE UPPER ORINOCO AND RIO NEGRO By Bruce B. Collette National Marine Fisheries Service Systematics Laboratory National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D. C. 20560 While reviewing the South American freshwater needlefish genus Potamorrhaphis, an undescribed species was found from the upper tributaries of the Orinoco in Venezuela and Co-lombia and the upper Rio Negro in Brazil. Because completion of the generic review has been delayed, I have decided to describe the new species separately. It is herein named in honor of the late Dr. James A. Peters, who was best known as an authority on Neotropical amphibians and reptiles. He directly aided my studies of the South American freshwater needlefishes Potamorrhaphis and Pseudotylosurus, and I take great pleasure in naming this species after him. Study materials are in the collections of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia (ANSP); the American Mu-seum of Natural History (AMNH); California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco (CAS and SU); Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris (MNHN); INDERENA, Bogota; Museo de Biologia, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas (MBUCV); and the National Museum of Natural History (USNM). This paper is one in a series on the systematics of the Synentognathi; see Collette (1966) on Belonion and Collette (in press) on Pseudotylosurus for studies on the other two genera of South American freshwater needlefishes. Discovery of a second species of Potamorrhaphis and sepa-5— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 87, 1974 (31)
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