118 PROCEEDINGS OP THE ACADEMY OP 



D. XVII. 26. A. III. 14. P. 9 | 6. Scales 55 ^- Giinther. (B. 6.) 

 Habitat. Australia (Port Arthur, Port Essington) and New Zealand. 



CHILODACTYLUS (Lacepede.) 



Chilodactylus Lactpede, Histoire Naturelle des Poissons, tom. v. p. 6. 

 Trichopterus Gronovius, Catalogue of Fish collected and described by L. T. 



Gronow, now in the British Museum, p. 162, 1854. 

 Cynsedus sp. Gronovius, Zoophylacium. 

 Pteronemus Van der Hceren, Handbook of Zoology, vol. ii. p. 177. 



Ossa branchiostegalia 5 5. 



Body highest and arched above the ventral fins, and with a moderate 

 caudal peduncle. Scales small. Head moderate, apparently with the crown 

 arched and the profile decurved ; crown and sides of the head scaly. Pre- 

 operculum vertical behind. Operculum with two blunt points separated by 

 an emargination. Mouth moderate. Teeth on both of the jaws villiform. 

 Branchiostegal rays five on each side. Dorsal fin with its spinous and soft 

 parts nearly equal in length ; the former has eighteen or nineteen spines, is 

 convex near the middle, and little lower behind than the soft part. Anal fin 

 short, with its three spines moderate and its soft rays rapidly diminishing in 

 length. Pectoral fins with one of the articulated rays much produced. 



Type. Chilodactylus fasciatus Lace'pede. 



The genus Chilodactylus, as now characterized, is distinguished by the form 

 of the head and the presence of only five branchiostegal rays. Its scales are 

 also in the type rather smaller than those of the allied genera. There is per- 

 haps not more than one species. 



Chilodactylus fasciatus Lacepede. 



Cynaedus sp. Gronov., Zoophylacium p. 64, No. 221, pi. x. fig. 1. 

 Cheilodactylus fasciatus Laceptde, Hist. Nat. des Poissons, tom. v. p. 6, 



pi. 1, fig. 1. 

 Trichopterus indicus Gronovius, Catalogue, Gray ed. p. 162. 

 Pteronemus fasciatus Van der Hoeven, Handbook of Zoology vol. ii. p. 177. 

 D. XVIII. 23. A. III. 11. Scales 75. 

 Hob. Cape of Good Hope. 



The following species may provisionally be retained here ; it differs from 

 Chilodactylus fasciatus by the larger size of the scales and the brevity of the 

 simple pectoral rays. 



Chilodactylus brachydactylus Cuv. et Vol. 



Cheilodactylus brachydactylus Cuv. et Vol., Hist. Nat. des Poissons, tome 

 v. p. 361. 



(B. V.) D. XVII. XVIII. 31. A. III. 9. Scales 50 6-13. 



Hah. Cape of Good Hope. 



A species discovered in King George's Sound has been described as approach- 

 ing to C. carponemus in shape, but rather more elongated in the body, and 

 with a more arched spinous dorsal, the situation of the eyes nearer the snout, 

 the abbreviated simple pectoral rags and the naked cheeks. "The disk of the 

 preoperculum is broad, that of the interoperculum fully equal to it, and both 

 these bones and the cheeks are scaleless in the specimen, which has sustained 

 some damage in the head, but not apparently in these places," (Richardson.) 

 If the cheeks are really naked in a normal condition, the species is so distin- 

 guished from every other species of the group of Latrides. It doubtless does 

 not belong to the genus, but it cannot well be characterized until better 

 known. Perhaps the Cheilodactylus brachydactylus belongs to the same genus. 



Chilodactylus nigricans. 



Cheilodactylus nigricans Richardson, Proc. Zoological Society 1850, p. 63. 

 Ha b. Australia. 



[March, 



