Suborder Heterosomata 



4 8 9 



species allied to these abound in the West Indies, known in a 

 general way as whiffs. The most widely distributed of these 

 are Citharichthys spilopterus of the West Indies, Citharichthys 

 gilberti and Azevia panamensis of Panama, Orthopsetta sordida 

 of California, and especially the common small-mouthed Etropus 

 crossotus found throughout tropical America. Numerous other 

 genera and species of the turbot tribe are found on the coasts 

 of tropical Asia and Africa, most of them of small size and weak 

 structure. 



Samaris cristatus of Asia is the type of another tribe of 

 flounders and the peculiar hook- jawed Oncopterus darwini of 

 Patagonia represents still another tribe. 



The Halibut Tribe : Hippoglossinae. In the great halibut tribe 

 the mouth is large and the ventral fins symmetrical. The 

 arctic and subarctic species have the eyes and color on the 



FIG. 436. Etropus crossotus Jordan & Gilbert. Cedar Keys, Fla. 



right. Those of the warmer regions (bastard halibut) have the 

 eyes and color on the left. These grow progressively smaller 

 in size to the southward, the mouth being smaller and more 

 feebly armed in southern species. 



The largest of the family, and the one commercially of far 

 greatest importance, is the halibut (Hippoglossus hippoglossus). 

 This species is found ori both shores of both oceans, north of 

 about the latitude of Paris, Boston, Cape Mendocino, and Mat- 

 sushima Bay in Japan. Its preference is for offshore banks 



