384 Chromides and Pharyngognathi 



The many species of Amphiprion are always brilliant, red 

 or orange, usually marked by one or two cross-bands of creamy 

 blue. Amphiprion melanopus abounds in the south seas. 

 Azurina hirundo is a slender species of lower California of a 

 brilliant metallic blue. All these species are carnivorous, feed- 

 ing on shrimps, worms, and the like. 



Micros pathodon is herbivorous, the serrated incisors being 

 loosely implanted in the jaws. Microspathodon dorsalis, of the 

 west coast of Mexico, is of a deep indigo-blue color, with streamer- 

 like fins. Microspathodon chrysurus, of the West Indian coral 

 reefs, black with round blue spots and the tail yellow. This 



FIG. 316. Indigo Damsel fish, Microspathodon dorsalis (GUI). Mazatlan, Mex. 



family is probably of recent origin, as few fossils are referred 

 to it. Odonteus pygm&us of the Eocene perhaps belongs to it. 



Suborder Pharyngognathi. The wrasses and parrot-fishes, con- 

 stituting the group called Pharyngognathi (QapvyZ, gullet ; yvaftos, 

 jaw), by Johannes Miiller, have the lower pharyngeal bones 

 much enlarged and solidly united, their teeth being either 

 rounded or else flat and paved. The nostrils, ventral fins, 

 pectoral fins and shoulder-girdle are of the ordinary perch- 

 like type. The teeth are, however, highly specialized, usually 

 large and canine-like, developed in the jaws only, and the gills 

 are reduced in number, 3^ instead of 4, with no slit behind the 

 last half gill. The scales are always cycloid and are usually large. 

 In the tropical forms the vertebrae are always twenty-four in 



