^/o Vol 45, DP. 19-22 April 2, 1932 PROCEEDINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON ,-<::'----^"' /,' -■■■... Vk-" 6%.. ■ V, THE SCIENTIFIC NAME OF THE COMMON SOLE', ^p \\ OF THE ATLANTIC COAST OF THE;^-;.-.. ^,^ "^ -•<// UNITED STATES. ""^"^^ -^* -rl^ ^^ BY CARL L. HUBBS. The most common and best known of the soleid fishes of the United States has passed almost consistently as Achirus fasdatus (Lacepede), since this name was adopted by Jordan and Goss (1889:315), and by Jordan and Evermann (1898:2700). Recently, however, doubt has been cast on the applicabihty of either the generic or specific name to this species. It is the purpose of the present note to consider the recent claims, and to review the problem from the standpoint of the early writers as well. The generic name will be considered first. The genus Achirus was established by Lacepede in his Histoire Naturelle de Poissons (1802 : 658). Lacepede divided his genus into two subgenera; neither of which he named. The second subgenus was made to include two sinistral species, now not classed in the Soleidae, as that family is at present delimited. As neither of these species of the second subgenus has ever been considered as the type of Achirus, attention may be restricted to the species of the first subgenus, namely Achirus harbatus, A. marmoratus, A. pavoninus and A. fasdatus. The first subdivider of the genus was Kaup (1858), who restricted the genus to the first three species named, and pl&ced fasdatus (and the related lineatus) in a new genus Grammichthys. This action was known to Jordan and Goss (1889 : 308), Jordan and Evermann (1898 : 2693) and others, but has been interpreted as determining the status of the generic name only by Chabanaud (1930 :263). Emphasizing this point, and the fact that harbatus, the first species listed by Lacepede, is considered a doubtful synonym of marmoratus, which species with pavoninus constituted the genus Pardachirus Giinther (1862 : 478), Chabanaud (1930 : 262) replaced Pardachirus with Achirus. In so doing he removed Achirus from the group 6— Pboc. Biol. Soc. Wash., Vol. 45, 1932. (19)
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