Vol. 51, pp. 65-66 March 18, 1938 PROCEEDINGS jgSS OF THE f WP BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON A NEW CHINESE BLENNY. BY ALBERT W. C. T. HERRE. Stanford University, California. The blennies of the Chinese coast are very imperfectly known. The tidepools and flats, and islets which dot the shore every-where, have never been explored and as I have indicated else-where a rich harvest awaits collectors and students of Chinese marine fishes. Dr. Y. T. Chu in his Index Piscium Sinensium lists three species of Blennius (two of them doubtful), four species of Petroscirles, and three species of Salarias. To this is to be added a fifth species of Petroscirtes described by me from the mud flats near Macao. I have no doubt thai Hainan alone has three times as many blennies as are thus far recorded from Chinese waters. It is self-evident also that numerous species of Japanese blennies must occur along the northern coasts of China, across the narrow Yellow Sea from Japan. There are several reasons for this lack of knowledge of Chinese blennies, not the least being the difficulty of collecting most of the shore-dwelling species. Salarias lighti Herre, new species. Dorsal XII-15, almost completely divided; anal 1-15 or 11-16; no canines; the long pointed orbital tentacle is 1.5 times the eye; there is a minute tentacle on the nape and a short, broad, palmately divided nasal tentacle. The depth is 4 to 4.4 times, the head 3.9 to 4.2, the caudal 4.65 to 4.9 times in the length. The eye is 4.3 to 4.5, the snout 2.4 times in the head; the interorbital is 3.75 times in the eye. The head and trunk are broad, moderately, the tail strongly compressed; the snout is nearly vertical, the eye as far forward as possible; the large pectoral extends to a vertical from the anal origin, 3.4 to 3.8 in the length. The lateral line extends to a 15— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 51, 1938. (65) m ® SS 1938
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