THE TARPONS 



l'~amily IX. Elopida 



BODY elongate, more or less compressed, covered with silvery 

 cycloid scales; head naked; mouth broad, terminal, the lower jaw 

 prominent; premaxillaries not protractile, short, the maxillaries form- 

 ing the lateral margins of the upper jaw; an elongate bony plate be- 

 tween the branches of the lower jaw; eye large, with an adipose eye- 

 lid; bands of villiform teeth in each jaw and on vomer, palatines, 

 pterygoids, tongue, and base of skull; no large teeth; opercular bones 

 thin, with expanded membranous borders; a scaly occipital collar; 

 gill-membranes entirely separate, free from the isthmus; branchiostegals 

 numerous (20 to 35); gillrakers long and slender; belly not keeled nor 

 serrated, rather broad and covered with ordinary scales; lateral line 

 present; dorsal fin inserted over or slightly behind the ventrals; 

 caudal fin forked; no adipose fin; dorsal and anal depressible into a 

 sheath of scales; pectorals and ventrals each with a very long 

 accessory scale; pyloric caeca numerous. 



Genera 3, species 4 or 5, forming 2 well-marked subfamilies, both 

 widely distributed in the tropical seas. The species are not much 

 valued as food, the flesh being dry and bony, but they are among the 

 greatest of game fishes. 



In our waters we have two genera, each represented by a 

 single species. 



a. Pseudobranchise none; body oblong, covered with large scales: 

 anal fin larger than the dorsal; last ray of dorsal produced into 

 a long filament ; Tarpon, 85 



IM. Pseudobranchiae large; body elongate, covered with small scales; 

 anal fin smaller than the dorsal ; last ray of dorsal not produced 

 in a filament; Elops, 87 



GENUS TAT{PON JORDAN & El/ERMANN 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with very large, thick, 

 silvery, cycloid scales; belly narrow but not carihated, its edge 

 with ordinary scales; lateral line nearly straight, its tubes radiating 

 widely over the surface of the scales; dorsal fin short and high, 

 inserted behind the ventrals, the last ray long and filamentous; anal 

 fin falcate, much longer than the dorsal, its last ray produced; caudal 

 widely forked, and more or less scaly. Only one species known. 



84 



