NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 105 



The genus Lepisoma has heen adopted hy the following authors, but it is 

 necessary to add, entirely on the authority of Dr. Dekay. 



Troschel has translated into German the characters of the genus for the 

 " Archiv fur Naturgeschichte " of 1844, page 233. He has questioned the pre- 

 sence of three ventral rays. 



Dr. Storer, in his ' ' Synopsis of the Fishes of North America, ' ' has adopted 

 it without qualification. 



Sir John Richardson, in the article '' Ichthyology " of the last edition of the 

 "Encyclopedia Britannica," at page 277 of the twelfth volume, has taken the 

 characters of the genus from the "Archiv," and on account of the presence of 

 six branchiostegal rays, places it, together with Boleosoma and Pileoma, at the 

 end of his family of Theraponidce, but adds that he "cannot, without more 

 data, fix their proper place in the system." 



No notice has been taken of the genus Labrosomus, except in a reference of 

 Lepisoma cirrhosum Dekay to it, in a recent number of the Proceedings of 

 the Academy of Natural Sciences. That this is entitled to distinction appears 

 to be evident, and its characters are now given. 



Labrosomus Sw., emend. 

 Synonymy. 



Labrisomus Sw., Nat. Hist., Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles, vol. ii. pp. 75> 

 182, 277, 1839. 



Lepisoma Dekay, Zoology of New York, Fishes, p. 11, 1842. 



Blennius sp. auct. 



Clinus sp. auct. 



Body oblong, highest at the pectoral fins, thence attenuated towards the 

 caudal. Scales moderate, covering the body and encroaching upon the verti- 

 cal fins. Head compressed, naked, declining from the nape with a slight 

 curve. Eyes large, separated by a narrow interval. Superciliary tentacles 

 multifid, and one or two transverse rows of filaments across the nape. Nostrils 

 approximated ; the anterior ones with a tufted barbel on the posterior border. 

 Teeth in the anterior row stout, recurved, conic and pointed, behind which is 

 a band of villiform teeth. Vomerine and palatine teeth stout and conic, gene- 

 rally in a single row. Dorsal fin commencing near the nape ; the spinous por- 

 tion long, and with from sixteen to eighteen rays, slowly decreasing in height 

 to the soft portion ; the latter oblong, with its rays subequal and higher than 

 the spinous portions. Caudal fin moderate, truncate or rounded, and discon- 

 nected from the dorsal and anal fins. Ventral fins jugular, closely approxi- 

 mated, each composed of three rays. 



1. Labrosomus pec tinifer Sw. 

 Synonymy. 



Clinus pectinifer Val., Hist. Nat. des Poissons, vol. xi. p. 374, 1836. 



Labrisomus pectinifer Sw., Nat. Hist., Fishes, Amphibians and Reptiles, vol. 

 ii, p. 277, 1839. 



Lepisoma cirrhosum Dekay, Zoology of New York, Fishes, p. 41, pi. 30, fig, 

 94, 1842. 



Lepisoma cirrhosum Storer, Synopsis of Fishes of North America, p. 49, ib. 

 in Memoirs American Academy, 1856. 



Clinus pectinifer Mull, and Troschel con Schomburgh Annals and Magazine 

 Nat. Hist., 2d ser. vol. ii, p. 16 ; ib. in Schomburgh's Barbados. 



Clinus pectinifer Castlenau, Animaux nouveaux ou rares recueilles &c, dans 

 l'Amerique du sud. Poissons, p. 26, 1855. 



Labrtsomus pectinifer Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 21. 



There can scarcely remain a doubt of the identity of the Lepisoma cir rh o- 

 s u m of Dr. Dekay with the Labrosomus pectinifer. The only difference 

 between the description of Dekay and that of Valenciennes, is respecting the 



1S60.] 



