34 



The Bass and their Relatives 



the Mediterranean, Dentex dentex. Very many related species 

 occur in the old world, the prettily colored Nemipterus virgatus, 

 the Itoyori of Japan being one of the best known. Another 

 interesting fish is Aphareus furcatus, a handsome, swift fish of 

 the open seas occasionally taken in Japan and the East Indies. 

 Glaucosoma burgeri is a large snapper of Japan, and a related 

 species, Glaucosoma hebraicum, is one of the " jewfishes " of 

 Australia. Numerous fossil forms referred to Dentex occur in 

 the Eocene of Monte Bolca, as also a fish called Ctenodentex 

 lackeniensis from the Eocene of Belgium. 



The Grunts: Haemulidae. The large family of Hamulidce, 

 known in America as grunters or roncos, is represented with the 



FIG. 277. Grunt, Hcemvlon plumieri (Bloch). Charleston, S. C. 



snappers in all tropical seas. The common names (Spanish, 

 roncar, to grunt or snore) refer to the noise made either with 

 their large pharyngeal teeth or with the complex air-bladder. 

 These fishes differ from the Lutianintz mainly in the feebler 

 detention, there being no canines and no teeth on the vomer. 

 Most of the American species belong to the genus Hcemulon 

 or red-mouth grunts, so called from the dash of scarlet at the 

 corner of the mouth. H&mulon plumieri, the common grunt, or 

 ronco arard,, is the most abundant species, known by the 

 narrow blue stripes across the head. In the yellow grunt, 

 ronco amarillo (Hcsmulon sciurus), these stripes cross the whole 



