166 CONTRIBUTIONS TO AUSTRALIAN ICHTHYOLOGY, 



the body. Vertebrse reddish; a series of nine to eleven black 

 spots along the lateral line; a similar spot at the base of the 

 last dorsal and anal rays, and two or three on the upper edge of 

 the peduncle; border of some of the anterior scales above the 

 lateral line black; an oblique bar from the eye to the angle of the 

 preopercle, consisting of numerous small pearly black-edged spots: 

 fins yellowish, the first dorsal apparently with dusky tip. 



Etymology: — Named for Dr. Riippell, author of several 

 works on the fishes of the Red Sea. 



Type in the South Kensington Museum. 



Total length 110 millimeters. 



Distribution : — West coast of Australia. Giinther's type 

 came from Port Darwin. There are two specimens in Mr. Lea's 

 collections, one, the larger, from Pelsart Island, and a second (50 

 millimeters) from the neighbourhood of Perth. 



SERRANID^. 



BOSTOCKIA. 



Bostockia, Castelnau, Proc. Zool. & Acclim. Soc. Vict. ii. 1873, 

 p. 126 (porosa). 



Body oblong, compressed. Scales moderate, adherent, cycloid, 

 concentricall}'- striated. Lateral line complete or incomplete, the 

 tube straight, each extending over at least two scales (in hemi- 

 gramma). Head large, partially naked ; snout broad and 

 depressed; muciferous system largely developed. Mouth with 

 rather wide, oblique cleft, the chin slightly protruding. Premax- 

 illaries but little protractile; maxillary exposed, naked, with sup- 

 plemental bone. Jaws, vomer, and palatines with bands of 

 villiform teeth; pterygoids and tongue smooth; lower pharyngeal 

 bones narrow, the teeth acute and conical. Nostrils distant, the 

 anterior on the border of the lip, tubular. Eyes moderate, high, 

 sublateral. Preopercle with a double ridge, the outer serrated; 

 opercle with a single spine, the lobe well developed. Gill-openings 

 wide; gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; six branchi- 

 ostegals; pseudobranchise rudimentary; gill-rakers short and clavi- 



