PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 113(2):397-400. 2000. Ammodytoides leptus, a new species of sand lance (Teleostei: Ammodytidae) from Pitcairn Island Bruce B. Collette and John E. Randall (BBC) National Marine Fisheries Service Systematics Laboratory, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C., 20560-0153, U.S.A.; (JER) Bernice P. B. Bishop Museum, P.O. Box 190, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817-0916, U.S.A. Abstract. — Ammodytoides leptus is described from 23 specimens from Pit-cairn Island. It has more lateral-line scales than any other known species of Ammodytoides or Bleekeria (119-123 vs. 88-118). It is thinner than A. pylei, A. kimurai, and A. gilli (body depth 8.6-9.5% SL vs. 9.5-11.7%). During his expedition to the eastern South Pacific on board the schooner West-ward (Randall 1978, 1999), the second au-thor collected the first sand lance recorded from the South Seas at Pitcairn Island in January 1971. The purpose of this paper is to describe this sand lance and assess its relationships to other members of the genus Ammodytoides as defined by Ida et al. (1994), including two additional species de-scribed by Ida & Randall (1993) and Rand-all et al. (1994) and A. gilli redescribed by Collette & Robertson (2000). Materials and Methods Type specimens of the new species have been deposited in the Bernice P. Bishop Museum, Honolulu (BPBM), the National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C. (USNM), the Australian Museum, Sydney (AMS), the Museum of Compara-tive Zoology, Cambridge (MCZ), and the National Science Museum, Tokyo (NSMT). Institutional abbreviations for sources of comparative material follow Leviton et al. (1985). Measurements follow Ida and Randall (1993) and Randall et al. (1994). Generic nomenclature follows Ida et al. (1994). All proportions are presented as percent of standard length (SL). Ammodytoides leptus, new species Fig. 1 Ammodytes sp. Randall 1999:24 (an undes-cribed species from Pitcairn). Diagnosis. — A species of Ammodytoides with dorsal-fin rays 50-53; anal-fin rays 24-25; pectoral-fin rays 16-17; pelvic fins absent; lateral line incomplete, pored later-al-line scales 114-118 + 4-6 unpored scales = 119-123; gill rakers on first arch (6-7) + (22-25) = 29-32; vertebrae (34-36) + (26-27) = 61-63, including hypural plate. Description. — Body elongate, depth 8.6-9.5%, width 5.6-6.3%; head length 23.3-25.1%; snout length 6.7-7.3%; orbit diam-eter 4.1-4.5%; fleshy interorbital distance 3.5-3.7%; upper jaw length 7.8-8.6%; least caudal peduncle depth 4.7-5.1%; caudal peduncle length 6.6-8.3% SL; predorsal distance 24.0-28.5%; preanal distance 63.3-66.2%; caudal-fin length 13.6-14.5%; caudal fin concavity 6.3-7.1%; pectoral-fin length 9.0-10.1% (Table 1). Scales small, thin, and cycloid, arranged in straight diagonal rows; head naked, no row of small scales on upper part of oper-cle, scales extending anteriorly to supratem-poral lateral-line canal; about 10-12 rows of predorsal scales; fins naked except cau-dal fin, which has scales extending about
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