During the period between May, 1966 and January, 1970, 31 specimens cf a deepsea percoid fish,
Howella simplex (Parr), which has not been recorded from Japan, were collected in Suruga Bay, Shizuoka Perfecture.This species was first described (Parr, 1933) from Bahama Islands in the genus
Bathysphyraenops, and later reported from the Indian Ocean (Mead and De Falla, 1965). On the basis of examination of materials from various institutions, we synonymize
Bathysphyraenops Parr (1933) with
Howella Ogilby (1898); the two major characters used for separating those genera by Parr are variable and generically insignificant. The specimens of
Howella simplex from Suruga Bay represent the first record of the species from the Pacific Ocean, and the first record of the
genus Howella from the northwestern region of the Pacific. Published and unpublished records indicate that the genus
Howella is circumglobally distributed in the area between 60°N and 50°S latitude. We agree with Gosline (1966) in the placement of
Howella in the family Percichthyidae.
抄録全体を表示