WILLIAMS: CHASMODES TAXONOMY


addition to these, there are three specimens of C. saburrae (USNM 4307,
4308,4309) from the "Coast of South Carolina," collected in the late 1800's.
Dr. Victor G. Springer has informed me that it is likely these locality data
are in error, a conclusion with which I agree.
 Between Pensacola, Florida, and Chandeleur Islands, Louisiana, Chas-
modes saburrae is sympatric with C. b. longimaxilla. Within this region, the
two species are allotopic (as defined by Rivas 1964), with C. saburrae
almost exclusively inhabiting the grassbeds and C. b. longimaxilla res-
tricted to the oyster shell areas, thus accounting for the genetic integrity of
the two species over the area of sympatry.
 The distinctness of the sympatric Gulf of Mexico populations can be
contrasted with the overlapping characters of the allopatric populations on
the Atlantic coast of Florida. This may be seen in Table 8, which shows a
relatively high degree of overlap in maxillary length between Chasmodes
saburrae and C. bosquianus bosquianus, and no overlap between sympat-
ric C. saburrae and C. b. longimaxilla. The phenomenon of character
displacement (see C. b. longimaxilla account) appears to be contributing to
the divergence of the disjunct populations of C. bosquianus. It is interesting
to note that maxillary length is one of the few morphological characters
showing a significant difference between the disjunct populations (see
Tables 4, 7).
 DIscussION OF SYNONYMY.-Dr. C. Lavett Smith (American Museum of
Natural History) has been unable to locate the holotype of Blennius fabbri,
but I concur with Springer (1959) in assuming that this specimen, because
of its type locality, must be a young specimen of Chasmodes saburrae and
not C. bosquianus, as suggested by Nichols (1911).
 REMARKS.-Bath (1977:181) designated a specimen from the British
Museum (BMNH 1887.5.14.141) as a paratype of Chasmodes saburrae.
This was apparently the first mention of this specimen as a type. Bath
(1977) does not explain his reason for this action. I have examined this
specimen and, although it belongs to C. saburrae, found nothing in the jar
with the specimen to indicate that it was designated as a paratype by
Jordan or Gilbert. Mr. Alwyne Wheeler, at the British Museum, informed
me that he could find nothing in their records to indicate that this specimen
was ever designated as a paratype. It is possible that this specimen was one
of the 14 mentioned in the original description (Jordan and Gilbert 1883:
299), but I do not feel that there is any basis for its being designated as a
paratype.
 Another problem exists with regard to the number of paratypes. Sprin-
ger (1959) pointed out that there are 9 type specimens of Chasmodes
saburrae catalogued in the National Museum of Natural History, and 12
paratypes (now at the California Academy of Sciences) listed by Bohkle
(1953). I have examined the latter series and confirm their identification as