553 



A DESCRIPTION AND FIGURES OF THREE SPECI- 

 MENS OF MOLAGANTHUS FROM THE CENTRAL 

 PACIFIC OCEAN. 



By Allan R. McCulloch, Zoologist, Australian Museum. 



(^Published by pennission of the Trustees of the Australian 



Museum.) 



(Plates Iviii.-lix.). 

 Mof.A (Molacanthus) sp. 



The Trustees have I'eceived three young sunfish in good 

 condition from Dr. Thomas D. Liddle, R.N. They are only 

 9-5-13 mm. long, and were taken from the stomach of a king- 

 fish caught swimming near the surface, during the passage of 

 H.M.S. "Torch," between the Ellice and Union Islands, Cen- 

 tral Pacific, in 1911. I am unable, owing to the want of 

 literature, to compare them fully with the various young 

 forms that have already been described, but as they differ so 

 greatly from any figures available to me, I have described 

 and figured them here, leaving it to others more fortunately 

 situated to determine their relationship to one or another of 

 the adult species. 



Body upright-oval, the depth 1\ the length in a specimen 

 13 mm. long; breadth equal to about half the length. Viewed 

 from the front, the body is broad above and narrow below ; 

 posteriorly it is much compressed, almost keeled. Eye rather 

 large, less than one-third the distance between the snout and 

 the gill-opening, placed in a broad shallow depression on the 

 side of the head. Mouth small, its width equal to that of 

 the eye, upper jaw forming a pointed beak ; its position is 

 below the level of the pectoral and anal fins. Gill-opening 

 oblique, curved, equal to two-thirds the width of the eye ; it 



