330 The Bass and their Relatives 



some, and excellent as food. Hemianthias vivanus, known 

 only from the spewings of the red snapper (Lutianus aya) at 

 Pensacola, is one of the most brilliant species, red, with golden 

 streaks. The genus Pie slops consists of small fishes almost 

 black in color, with blue spots and other markings, abounding 

 about the coral reefs. In this genus the lateral line is inter- 

 rupted and there is some indication of affinity with the Opis- 

 thognathida . 



In the soapfishes (Rypticus} the supplementa Imaxillary 

 appears again, but in these forms the dorsal fin is reduced to 

 two or three spines and there are none in the anal. Rypticus 

 saponaceus, so called from the smooth or soapy scales, is the 



FIG. 265. Soapfish, Rypticus bistrispimis (Mitchill). Virginia. 



best known of the numerous species, which all belong to trop- 

 ical America. Grammistes, with eight dorsal spines, is a related 

 form in Polynesia, bright yellow, with numerous black stripes. 

 Numerous species referred to the Serranida occur in the Eocene 

 and Miocene rocks. Some are related to Epinephelus, others to 

 Roccus and Lates. In the Tertiary lignite of Brazil is a species 

 of Percichthys, Percichthys antiquus, with Proper ca beaumonti, 

 which seem to be a primitive form of the bass, allied to 

 Dicentrarchus . Prelates heberti of the Cretaceous, one of the 

 earliest of the series, has the caudal rounded and is apparently 

 allied to Lates, as is also the heavily armed Acanus regley- 

 sianus of the Oligocene. Smerdis minutus, a small fish from the 

 Oligocene, is also related to Lates, which genus with Roccus and 

 Dicentrarchus must represent the most primitive of existing 

 members of this family. Of both Smerdis and Dicentrarchus 

 (Labrax) numerous species are recorded, mostly from the~ Mio- 

 cene of Europe. 



