Note on the Hermaphroditism of Fish. 309 



Trisotropis falcatus. 



Serranus falcalus, Poey, Mem. ii. 138; Syn. 285. 



This Abadejo has only been seen once as long as 370 m . The 

 body is brown, covered with darker brown spots ; the caudal 

 appears forked, on account of the long outer rays. The fifth 

 and sixth soft rays of the anal are prolonged in a point; edge of 

 the pectorals orange. 



XXI. — Note on the Hermaphroditism of Fish. 

 By Felipk Poey. 



Read December 20, 1869. 



The indications given by Cavolini, and the judgment passed 

 upon them by Cuvier and Valenciennes, may have led us to sus- 

 pect the existence of normal hermaphroditism in certain fish, 

 but Dufosse alone has the credit of having proved the existence 

 of it, in 1856, on three Acanthopterygians of the Percoid 

 family, belonging to the genus Serranus, namely, S. scriba, S. 

 cabrilla, and S. hepatus. Each individual of these three species 

 produces eggs which it impregnates as soon as they are ejected. 

 These facts are all the more remarkable as Miiller* has said : 

 " The separation of the sexes is so constituted, that the Verte- 

 brata and the Articulata exhibit no signs of normal herma- 

 phroditism." 



I have since called attention to a similar occurrence in Meso- 

 prion ambiguus,\ which I described and figured, showing the 

 organs of generation. Having been able to examine but one 

 specimen, I am ignorant as to whether the hermaphroditism be 

 normal or accidental. 



I will now add that I have discovered hermaphroditism in two 

 other species of the Percoid family, namely, in Lutjanns Ca- 



* See paper by Dufosse, Ann. des. Scie's. Nat., 4me sdr., vol. v., p. 295, 

 pi. viii. 

 t Mem. sobre la Hist. Nat. de la Isla de Cuba vol. ii. p. 152, pi. xii. 



