PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON lll(4):954-985. 1998. A review of western north Atlantic species of Bembrops, with descriptions of three new species, and additional comments on two eastern Atlantic species (Pisces: Percophidae) Bruce A. Thompson and Royal D. Suttkus (BAT) Coastal Fisheries Institute, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana 70803-7503; (RDS) Tulane University Museum of Natural History, Belle Chasse, Louisiana 70037 Abstract. — The Atlantic members of the genus Bembrops were examined from approximately 700 specimens. Meristic, morphometric, and pigment char-acters were used to redescribe six species, B. anatirostris, B. gobioides, B. greyi, B. heterurus, B. macromma, and B. magnisquamis. Three species, Bem-brops ocellatus, B. quadrisella, and B. raneyi are described as new. New in-formation on sexual dimorphism, the cephalic canal system and vertebral num-. ber is presented. Distribution maps for all nine species are shown. Bembrops ocellatus and B. quadrisella are widespread in the Caribbean Sea. Bembrops raneyi is known only from the Bahama Islands. The three new species are illustrated. The American members of the genus Bembrops were reviewed by Ginsburg (1955); three of the four species he de-scribed as new; in addition, he reviewed the literature and characterized the family Per-cophidae ( = Percophididae). The family was also characterized by Grey (1959) and detailed descriptions of B. anatirostris, B. gobioides, and B. macromma were present-ed, along with figures of B. anatirostris and B. macromma. More recently. Das & Nelson (1996) pre-sented a world-wide revision of the perco-phid genus Bembrops, recognizing a new species from the eastern Atlantic. They re-viewed the eighteen nominal species in the genus, relegating five into synonymy. A wealth of unstudied material of the various species is available from Cornell University (CU); Tulane University, Muse-um of Natural History (TU); University of Florida (UF); and United States National Museum (USNM) and we present addition-al data on the four species known to Gins-burg, plus data on two eastern Atlantic spe-cies, and describe three new species from the western north Atlantic. During this study we have become aware that much remains to be done in systemat-ics, life history, sexual dimorphism, and distribution of the species within the genus Bembrops. We intend to pursue the study of Atlantic populations and expand our study to include related Indian and Pacific Ocean species. However, because of practical con-siderations the main purpose of this paper is to provide names for the three new forms. We follow Ginsburg 's (1955) placement of Bembrops in the family Percophidae ( = Percophididae). Future research may prove the necessity of elevating the subfam-ily Bembropinae (Nelson 1976, 1984, 1994) to family status. The new species de-scribed herein fit the characters for the fam-ily and genus as given by Ginsburg (1955), Nelson (1976, 1978, 1984, 1994) and Das & Nelson (1996). Methods and Materials Ginsburg (1955) pointed out the difficul-ties involved in studying the species of
A review of western north Atlantic species of Bembrops, with descriptions of three new species, and additional comments on two eastern Atlantic species (Pisces: Percophidae)
BioStor
