DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 239 



Europe from Nf)rway to the Mediterranean and the Cape of Good Hope, and has also been 

 recorded from Madeira and the Southern Indian Ocean. 

 A specimen was obtained on the Grand Banks by one of the Gloucester fishing vessels. 



Family LUTJANID.^. 



Luijanidw, GiLl., Proo. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1884, 351. 



Acanthopterygiansof the ordinary type with compressed head and body, the supramax- 

 illary bones slipping under the preorbital, continuous lateral line, dorsal with spinous 

 part depressible in a groove. Pectorals with lower rays branched. Teeth all conical and 

 pointed, and canines more or less developed in jaws. Vomer dentigerous. Preopercle 

 serrate. Dorsal fin continuous. Pyloric caeca few. 



APRION, Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



ApHon, Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 18, xx, 544, pi. clxviii. — Gunthek, Cat. Fish. 

 Brit. MuH., I, 81.— Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1884, 351. 



Lutjanoids characterized by the presence of villiform teeth on the vomer, acute teeth 

 in the jaws; interobital area flat, separated by a line from the occipital region. Dorsal fin 

 continuous. Supraorbital margin crenate; periotic region much swollen outwards, and 

 with the bones thin and polished; preorbital moderate; frontals behind, with funnel- 

 shaped foramina; soft dorsal and anal scaleless; last rays of dorsal and anal produced. 

 {Jordan.) 



APRION MACROPHTHALMUS, (MOlleu) Jord.\n and Swain. (Figure 314.) 



Centropristis macrophlhalmus, Mi'Li.ER and Troschel, in Schombuigh's Hist. Barbadoes, 666, 1848 (young). 

 Elastoma macrajMhidmiis, Cope, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc, 468, 1869 (St. Martin's, New Providence, St. Croix). 

 MeMprion vorax, Poey, Mem., ii, 151, 1860 (Cuba). 

 Plaiyinius vorax, Gill, Proii. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1862 (generic diagnosis). — Poey, Synopsis Pise. Cub., 



1868, 292; Enumeratio, Pise. (Hib., 1875, 31. 

 Aprion macroj^hihalmiis, Jormax and Swain, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vii, 1884, 467. 



Au Aprion having the body oblong-elliptical, its height contained 3 times in length. 

 Mouth rather small, the canines feeble; tongue toothless; vomerine teeth in a A-shaped 

 patch. Scales large, regularly arranged, those above lateral line in series parallel with the 

 lateral line, which contains from 53 to 60 scales, with 7 above, 1-1 or 15 below, and 52 i)ores. 

 Dorsal spines 10; last ray of dorsal and anal produced. Gill-rakers numerous, about 17 

 on lower part of arch. Color rose-red, with some pearly markings. 



Eadial formula: D. x, 11; X. iii, 8. 



This species, described from moderate depths off Barbadoes, St. Martin's, New Provi- 

 dence, St. Croix, and Cuba, was taken by fha Blake at station CCLXI, in 23° 15' N. lat., 89° 

 10' W. Ion., at a depth of 81 fathoms. 



VERILUS, Poey. 



Verilua, PoEY, Mem. Hist. Nat. Cuba, ii, 1860, 125.— Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1889, 355.— Jordan and 

 Swain, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vii, 429, 470. 



A genus of Lutjanoids characterized by cavernous frontals (like those of Scifenoids), 

 with longitudinal osseous bars, leaving intersijaces in front of transverse ridge and on each 

 side near the front; supraorbital margins smooth; prefrontals behind with simple foramina 

 for olfactory nerves; body com])aratively short and deep; head .scaly above and on jaws 

 and snout; soft dorsal and anal scaly at base; peritoneum and lining of gill cavity black; 

 caudal lunate.* 



• This, as Jordan and Swaia have pointed out, is evidently from its structure a true bathybial form. 



