124 PISCES. 



mouth small and but slightly dentated, and the body without 

 scales-(l) 



Pelor. 



The entire dorsal and palatine teeth of the Scorpaenae; no scales on 

 the body; two free rays under the pectoral; anterior part of the head 

 flattened; eyes proximate, dorsal spines very high, and almost free; 

 the suborbital spine of Apistes is wanting, and their fantastic shape 

 and monstrous aspect are alone sufficient to distinguish them from 

 all other fishes. They inhabit the Indian Ocean.(2) 



Synanceia, B1. Schn. 



The appearance of these fishes is quite as hideous as that of a Pelor; 

 their head is rough, tuberculous, uncompressed, frequently enveloped 

 in a lax and fungous skin; their pectoral rays arc all branched; their 

 dorsals entire, and they have no teeth, neither in the vomer nor 

 palatines; their frightful appearance induces the fishermen of the 

 Indian Ocean, which they inhabit, to consider them as venomous.(3) 



MoNOCENTRis, Bl. Schn. Lepisacanthus, Lacep. 



A singular genus; the body is short, thick, and completely mailed 

 with enormous angular, rough, and carinated scales; four or five 

 stout free spines supply the place of the first dorsal; each ventral 

 consists of an immense spine, in the angle of which a few soft and 

 almost imperceptible rays are concealed; head bulky and mailed; 

 front gibbous; mouth large; short crowded teeth (en velours ras) in 

 the jaws and palatines, but none in the vomer; eight rays in the 

 branchise. But one species is known; the 



Mon. j'aponica, Bl. Schn. pi. xxiv; Lepisacanthe japonais, La- 

 cep. Six inches long, of a silvery white. From the sea of Ja- 

 pan.(4) 



(1) It is the Blennius torvus of Gronov., Act. Helvet. VII, pi. iii, copied, 

 Walb., Ill, pi. 2, f. 1; or Cm-ypJticna torva, Bl. Schn., and some new species. 



(2) Pel. obscurum, Cuv., or Seorpxna didadyla. Pall. Spic. Zool. VII, xxvi, iv; 

 Seb., Ill, xxviii, 3, or Trigla rubkunda, Horn,stedt, Stokhol. Mem., IX, iii, and 

 some new species to be described in our 4th vol. 



(3) Scorpsetia hm-rida, L., Lacep., II, xvii, 2; and not so well, Bl., 183; the 

 Sc. brachion, Lacep. Ill, xii, 1, ov Synanceia verrucosa, Bl., Schn., pi. 45; Syii. 

 bicapillata, Lacep. II, xi, 3. 



(4) Gasterosteus juponicus, Houtt., Harl. Mem., XX, part II, 299, or Scisenn 

 japmicayTlmwh., New Stockh. Mem., XI, iii, copied Bl., Schn., pi. xxiv. 



