A Review of the Morid Fish Genus Halargyreus with First Records from the Western North Atlantic

• Published in: Journal of the Fisheries Research Board of Canada
• Main Author: Templeman, Wilfred
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1968
• Subjects: General Medicine; New Zealand; North Atlantic; Northeast Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/f68-083; http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/f68-083

Three specimens of Halargyreus johnsonii taken on the southwestern and southeastern slopes of the Grand Bank in 1959 and 1964 are apparently the first records of this species and genus from the western Atlantic. These specimens are compared with the holotypes of H. johnsonii Günther and of H. brevipes Vaillant and with the syntypes of H. affinis Collett and also with specimens identified as H. affinis from the north-central and northeast Atlantic and with specimens of H. johnsonii from Madeira and New Zealand. These three nominal species are also compared. Is it concluded that for the present all North Atlantic specimens may be referred to H. johnsonii and that the other two species names should be considered as junior synonyms of H. johnsonii.The New Zealand specimens of Halargyreus, described by Günther (1887, Challenger Rept., 22(Zoology), p. 1–268) as H. johnsonii, have higher numbers for some meristic characters than Atlantic specimens of H. johnsonii but these differences are not too great to be possibly due to environmental differences. Pending the study of additional specimens in better condition, these New Zealand specimens are tentatively allowed to remain as H. johnsonii.