NOTES

Sexual Dimorphism m the Labrid Fish Genus G011'lphosus l

During an examination of the viscera of stripes from the snout tip to the caudal base. Marshallese fishes the writers' attention was They also differ from larger speClmens III that drawn to the fact that all of our specimens of they either lack or are just developing the Gomphosus varius in which the sex could be de­ elongate snout characteristic of the genus. Jor­ termined were females, and that all specimens dan and Evermann (1905. U. S. Fish Comm., Bul. of G. tricolor were males. Suspecting the possibil­ 23: pI. 36) present a color plate of tricolor and in ity of sexual dimorphism, we collected addi­ the same work (op. cit. , p. 289, fig. 125) a black tional material, so that this study of Gompho.rus and white drawing of varius. ultimately included 56 specimens from Eniwe­ In size, our tricolor range from 104 to 166 mm. tok, 4 from Bikini, 3 from Arno (all atolls in the in standard length, whereas typical varius range Marshall Islands), and 15 from Oahu and Kauai from 38 to 134 mm. From about 30 to 40 mm. in the Hawaiian Islands. Seven Marshallese and the varius and juvenile color patterns intergrade, 3 Hawaiian specimens were tricolor, according to our largest true juvenile measuring 36 mm. and various descriptions; 14 Marshallese specimens the smallest 23 mm. Similarly, but on the other were the distinctively marked juveniles of l!arius; end of the scale, our smaller tricolor show un­ and the remaining 54 were typical varius. Eight mistakable vestiges of a 1iariu.r color pattern, the of the 10 tricolor proved to be males, one was persistent elements being the basal dark spots decomposed internally, and another was too on the anterior trunk scales. These spots are immature to be sexed. Sex could not be deter­ more obvious in preserved material than in fresh mined for any of the 14 juvenile va ritts, but 39 specimens but some indication of their presence of the larger specimens were females in various occurs on all tricolor examined. The largest tri­ stages of maturity while 15 were immature and color have slightly lunate caudal fins, a condition could not be sexed. often appearing with age or sex in fishes, and The major taxonomic difference between tri­ here it is apparently restricted to the male. color and varius is color and color pattern. In Meristic data are the same for the two forms, life tricolor is a rich blue-green with a vertical based on 10 tricolor and 19 varius. Dorsal rays yellow-green bar across the trunk near the are VIII, 13; anal rays III, 11 (the first spine pectoral insertion. Its head and caudal fin tend is imbedded) although one tricolor had only 10 to be rather more bluish than the rest of the anal rays; pectoral rays are 16, including the body, and in large specimens the caudal fin is short bony splint at the top ·of the fin, with an somewhat lunate. G. varius is somberly colored occasional specimen having 15 or 17 rays; and in comparison, being plain black posteriorly and lateral line scales are 27. The gill arches are creamy white to light brown anteriorly, each C-shaped and not readily divisible into upper antero-dorsal scale having a dark spot at its and lower limbs. Gill rakers totalled 24 for the base. The breast and cheeks are white or cream, first arch in the two varius and two tricolor the snout tip is reddish, and a narrow black examined for this feature. stripe runs the length of the head at the level of the pupil. Small juveniles of 1iarius are bright The above facts point to the hypothesis that yellow-green dorsally, plain white laterally and in the Hawaiian and Marshall Islands, at least, ventrally, and have a pair of lengthwise black the species of Gomphosus hitherto regarded as tricolor and varius are in reality the two sexes of the same species. Apparently tricolor represents 1 This paper is Contribution No. 86, Hawaii Marine Laboratory, in cooperation with the Department of mature and nearly mature males while varius Zoology and Entomology, University of Hawaii. The includes all females and probably also young senior author was a member of the staff of Duke Uni­ males (even though no recognizable males were versity at the time the work was done. Manuscript found with typical 1iarius coloration). Mature received August 7, 1956. males are somewhat larger than the largest fe-

133 134 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XI, January, 1957 males and also tend to have lunate caudal fins. true. Disjunctive distril?utions and aberrant sex More than likely an histological examination ratios such as those found in this study do not of the gonads of small "varius" would show necessarily indicate that varius and tricolor are both sexes displaying the varius or juvenile color separate species, particularly in view of Gosline pattern. and Strasburg'S recent work (1956. Copeia 1: Marked sexual dimorphism, expressed as 9- 18), on the even more markedly dimorphic coloration differences, is not unusual among the Hawaiian moringuid eels. labroid fishes. Longley (longley and Hilde­ The name to be applied to our Gomphosus brand, 1941. Papers from Tortugas lab. 34: cannot be verified at this time. Gomphosus varius 196- 198) showed that in Thalassoma bifasciatum lacepede (1802. Hist. Nat. Poiss. 3:100, 104) only adult males attain the bifasciatum color predates G. tricolor Quoy and Gaimard (1824. pattern, whereas females and young males ex­ Voyage Uranie, Zool.: 280), the type localities hibit a coloration so characteristic that they were being Tahiti and the Hawaiian Islands re­ long called T. nitidum. Recently Randall (1955. spectively. We accordingly refer our material to Copeia 3: 237) has demonstrated that Stethojulis varius, but with the following reservation. In the renardi is merely the adult male of S. strigiventer, Indian Ocean the central Pacific forms of Gom­ and Brock and Yamaguchi (1954. Copeia 2: phosus are replaced by two or three other species, 154-155) have shown that Scarus ahula is the one or two of which may be identical with the female of S. perspicillatus. The latter authors con­ Pacific varius. Based on our experience it would trast the bright blue, green, and yellow pattern appear that sexual dimorphism is also present of male perspicillatus with the rather drab pattern in the Indian Ocean Gomphosus, and that males of the (emale, a situation quite similar to that may occur as either the blue-green tricolor form obtaining in GomphosuJ. or as a violet-blue species called coeruleus. The One line of evidence which seems to cast precise relationship of the Indian Ocean to the doubt on our hypothesis that tricolor and varius Pacific Gomphosus remains to be demonstrated. are dimorrhic forms of the same species is their When this is done it may be that what we here pattern 0 distribution and relative abundance. call varius will be synonymized with coeruleus. In the 2-to 35 -foot depth range sampled for this study tricolor occurred mostly in deeper water and was uncommon even there. G. varius, on DONALD W. STRASBURG the other hand, seemed to be uniformly dis­ U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Honolulu tributed throughout this range and was com­ and mon to abundant. Every rotenone or sight­ ROBERT W. HIATT observation station yielding tricolor also pro­ Department of Zoology and Entomology duced varius, but the reverse was certainly not University of Hawaii, Honolulu

·'t· - ' fI.~ '>;'" DR. ELMER D. MERRILL, 1876-1956

Last year marked the passing of the outstand­ question, "What are you doing about the liter­ ing bibliographer of the Pacific area, Dr. E. D. ature?", I started with almost no previous ex­ Merrill, botanist, bibliographer, and adminis­ perience in this field to become a bibliographer. trator; man of prodigious energy, broad vision, A year later we became collaborators in the and deep understanding of problems and people; "Bibliography of Eastern Asiatic Botany," and a valued friend. which left the press nearly ten years later. My I wish here to pay tribute to the memory of association with Dr. Merrill continued until the man to whom we owe so much. Extracts his death. from his contributions to science were repub­ Dr. Merrill's two most outstanding charac­ lished with subsidiary material in Chronica teristics were breadth of vision and limitless Botanical at a time when he could still appre­ capacity for work. He began in Manila with ciate the honor. His autobiography of his nothing but his own strong qualities. Before Philippine and California days was published in that field was well under way he had reached the Asa Gray Bulletin.2 Thus most of the essen­ out to small but important Amboina in the tial facts concerning this leader and builder East Indies, unknown Borneo, American pos­ need no further elaboration. sessions in the Pacific Islands, notably Guam, Before December, 1928 Dr. Merrill was to me and then Hainan Island and China. His in­ just the great man who had been Director of fluence was felt in institutions in Europe, the Bureau of Science in Manila and who had America, and Asia. To some he is a symbol of developed Philippine botany and the great over-extension, leaving a trail of unfinished herbarium in the capital of those islands. He works behind him. But he left the polish and was the one who by then had undertaken the fi ne points to others who could not see the need study of the flora of Hainan, and had stimulated for plowing widely if not deeply, in other fields the study of botany in many institutions in re:ated to his own. Indeed he was extended, yet China, especially by the Chinese themselves. To he knew this limitation. "Here it is," he said, him had gone all collections made at Lingnan "as far as I can do it with my limited time and University, Canton, China, where I had taught resources. Let others pick up from here." So from 1922 to 1926. He was dean of the Agri­ ran his philosophy. Then he turned to other cultural College of the University of California things, leaving behind him, it is true, great in June 1928, when I became an aide in the collections named merely "by sight," but col­ Division of Plants, U.S. National Herbarium, lections actually made in the first place simply Smithsonian Institution. I was employed to because people knew that Merrill would name bring order Out of the large and pardy worked them. And because of his determining of these Chinese and other Asiatic collections. Thus I vast collections they were placed where the joined the ranks of the very small number of . plodding taxonomists could get them and polish workers on the botany of China. Dr. Merrill them. Nor did he stop there, but continued on, was out front, I far in the rear. However, on stimulating, directing and sometimes working a trip to Washington he came around to "look with others on these great collections, as one me over." With his characteristically direct can see by perusing his bibliography and noting the joint authorships. Many are the institutions 'Merrilleana; a selection from the general writings of Elmer in whose history Merrill's name needs major Drew Merrill, Sc. D., LL.D. Chronica Botanica 10( 3/4): 131-393. 6 itltt!. 1946. mention for his direct and indirect influence ' E. D. Merrill-Autobiographical: Early years, the Philip. upon their growth. pines, California. Asa Gray Bulletin N. S. 2(3/4) : 335-370. 5 f. 1953. Merrill's breadth of vision made him see the

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,. 136 PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XI, January, 1957 need for clearing up confusion in older, neg­ funds were spent, not to take him to the haunts lected but fundamental works. He interpreted of this newly found "living fossil," but to enable the basic works by Blanco, Loureiro, Rafinesque; trusted Chinese collectors to go, unencumbered and others. He sought new collections to stand by accompanying foreigners, to gather a gen­ in place of important old ones no longer exist­ erous supply of seeds. These were sent to Dr. ing or lost. He instituted great improvements Merrill, then Director of the Arnold Arboretum in various herbaria and seized the opportunities and Administrator of Botanical Collections at which fell across his path to carryon these Harvard University. He distributed the seeds programs. Most noteworthy of these oppor­ to institutions the world over, wherever he tunities, so far as I am aware, was the Works thought there was a chance they would be Progress Administration project, born of the planted and cared for. Thus were determined depression in the early '30's and designed to by one extensive experiment the optimum con­ give useful work to the unemployed. Nor did ditions, and the range of possibilities for the he seize this opportunity just for himself and growth of this most interesting remnant from the organization of which he was by then the the past. Director, the New York Boranical Garden. His Naturally Merrill left much unfinished. His typists, whom he had literally by the dozen, sizeable book on Cook's voyages was his last made carbons of the original and critical de­ finished contribution. It contains much of his scriptions, which they copied at his direction distinctive and forceful philosophy, colored, as from otherwise unduplicated literature. Extra is to be expected, by the circumstances of his copies of these he sent to other institutions, condition and time of life. His belief in im­ even though at first they were often not warmly mortality was his confidence in the enduring received. He realized what the WPA workers worth of the foundations he had laid down and could do for the prodigious drudgery of bibli­ the ability of others to build thereon. I take ographic work and assigned the best of his staff strength from the confidence expressed in his to our joint "Bibliography of Eastern Asiatic turning over to Dr. F. R. Fosberg and me his Botany." This work is a monument to his vision papers and interest in an eventual fourth edition and to the many devoted WPA workers whom of the Pacific bibliography. he selected and inspired by his tirelessness and Dr. Merrill's influence on botany is not ended; his confidence in their ability to do the job well. it continues through me and many other "Mer­ I think no undertaking exemplifies his breadth rill-men," a designation I cherish. He wrote of vision more than his acquisition and dis­ and worked tirelessly for his chosen subject, tributIon of seeds of the now widely known broadly interpreted in time and space. Metasequoia from interior China. His limited Egbert H. Walker News Notes

Ninth Pacific Science Congress For the Pacific islands, there is a series of nine dates from materials collected for the Uni­ The Ninth Pacific Science Congress of the versity of California expedition, 1952, by E. W . Pacific Science Association will take place in Gifford and Dick Shutler, Jr., from New Cale­ Bangkok, November 18 to December 9, 1957. donia. This is the greatest number of dates It is being held under the auspices of His covering the longest cultural time-span that has Majesty's Government of Thailand and the been obtained for any Pacific island. The ter­ Science Society of Thailand. minal dates are 2800 -+- 35 0, and 615 -+- 300. . Secretary-General of the Congress is Dr. The oldest date, circa 844 B. c., is the earliest Charng Ratanarat, Department of Science, Min­ radiocarbon date for man in Melanesia. istry of Industry, Bangkok, Thailand. The New Caledonians speak a Malayo-Poly­ Present plans call for organization of the nesian language. As the linguistic relations of Congress into these divisions: Geology and New Caledonian and other M-P languages in Geophysics, Meteorology, Oceanography, Fish­ Polynesia and Melanesia are presently being eries, Zoology, Entomology, Botany, Conserva­ worked on, it is hoped that through the method tion, Museums, Soil and Land Classification, of glottOchronology and the radiocarbon method Forest Resources, Crop Improvement, Coconut it will be possible to relate the ' occupation of Problems, Animal Improvement, Chemistry in New Caledonia to both Polynesia and Mela­ the Development of Natural Resources, An­ nesia. thropology and Social Sciences, Public Health For Fiji, ( University of California expedition and Medical Sciences, and Nutrition. - Pacific of 1947, E. W . Gifford), there are six dates, of Science Association, Information Bulletin. which the oldest is 2000 ± 500. Pacific Radiocarbon Dates For purposes of comparison, the earliest radio­ carbon date for man in the Hawaiian islands An article in Science (124: 3224, 12 Oct. is A. D. 1004 ± 180. 1956) presents the first set of radiocarbon dates · This series of radiocarbon dates marks a major released by Professor H . R. Crane of the Uni­ advance in assembling a series of dates for versity of Michigan Radiocarbon Dating Lab­ Oceania adequate to establish the temporal oratOry. Pacific dates include a series from framework for the human occupation of the Japan, Korea, China, and Manchuria, as well as area.-Pacific Science Association, Information from Pacific islands. Bulletin.

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