248 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [1886. 



4. APELTES. 

 Apdten Dekay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., 67, 1842 (quadracus no description). 

 Apelte$ .Jordan, Man. Vert., 249, 1876 (Characterized). 



This geuus is distinguished by the form and position of the 

 innominate bones, these being separated and forming subdermal 

 spines on the outer edges of the abdomen. The pubic bones are 

 small and weak, not visible on surface. It is a more sharply de- 

 fined group than Eucalia or Pygosleus and its single species has 

 shown no important variation. 



Analysis of Species of Apeltes. 



a. Trunk oblong ; head pointed ; caudal peduncle slender, not 

 keeled. Mouth small, horizontal ; maxillary not reaching 

 to eye ; teeth slender, in a single series. No bon}^ dermal 

 plates along sides. Scapula forming a small granulated post- 

 opercular plate. Innominate bones wide apart ; the area 

 between them flat so that a section of the fish is triangular. 

 Gill membrane broadly united to the isthmus. Free dorsal 

 spines divergent. The spines slender, pointed, slightly 

 serrate. Distance between first and third spine much less 

 than that between third and fourth ; the first extending 

 beyond base of third. Caudal long, narrow ; anal similar 

 to soft dorsal and coterminous with it ; its spine under third 

 ray of dorsal. Ventral spines strong, subterete ; serrate on 

 both edges and covered by skin to near tip. When ventral 

 spines are set they point almost sidewise, when depressed 

 they lie along inside of innominate bones. Quadracus. 9. 



9. Apeltes quadracus. 



Gasterosfeus quadracm Mitchill, Trans. Lit. and Phil. Soc, i, 430, 1814 ; 

 Cuvier & Valenciennes, iv, 504. 1829 (Newfoundland) ; Storer, Rept. 

 Fishes Mass., 31, 1839 (Salem); Dekay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., 67, plate vi, 

 fig. 18, 1843 (New York); Storer, Syn., 63, 1846 ; Baird, Fish, of N. 

 Jersey Coast, 14, 1855 (Salt Ponds of New .Jersey); Storer, "Mem. 

 Am. Ac. New Series, ii, 315 ;" Storer, Fish. Mass., 89, plate viii, fig. 

 4, 1867 (Massachusetts); Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., i, 7, 1859 

 (copied); Sauvage, Revision des Epinoches, 27, 1874 (copied). 

 Apeltes quadracus Putnam, " Proc. Essex lust., 1855, 148," Brevoort in 

 Gill's Cat. Fish. East Coast N. A., 89, 1861 (Name only); Gill, Cat. 

 Fish. East Coast N. A., 16, 1873 (Name only); Jordan, Man. Vert. 

 Ed., i, 249, 1876 (copied); Jordan & Copeland, Checklist Fresh Water 

 Fish. N. A., 141, 1876 (East Coast); Jordan, Cat. Frtsh Water Fish. 

 N. A., 441, 1878 (Name only); Goode & Bean, Fish. Essex Co. and 

 Mass. Bay, 5, 1879 (Salem and vicinity); Goode, Bull, U. S. Nat. 

 Mus., xiv, 54, 1879 (Name only); Goode, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., xxi, 



