454 



CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 82 



Family LUTIANID^. 



123. Hoplopagrus guntheri Gill. Pargo Coconaco. 

 This beautiful and most interesting species is very com- 

 mon about Mazatlan in deep water among the islands. It 

 reaches a considerable size, the largest specimen seen by 

 us having a length of 26 inches. There is considerable 

 difference between the young and the old in coloration, 

 the bands so conspicuous disappearing with age. The 

 species has been found in abundance at Cape San Lucas, 

 Altata and Guaymas, but has not been noticed further 

 south. 



Adult greenish above, belly coppery pink; head olive, 

 sides with eight cross bands of warm brown, unequally 

 placed; fins dusky olive shaded with pinkish and brown; 

 ventrals black tipped. A dark crescent at base of pec- 

 toral. 



124. Lutianus novemfasciatus Gill. Pargo Prieto. 

 Pargo Mareno. 



This species reaches a much larger size than any other 

 members of the genus on the Pacific Coast, those speci- 

 mens obtained by us with dynamite among the Venados 

 Islands having a weight of about twenty-five pounds. It 

 is a food fish of some importance. It undergoes very 

 considerable changes with age, as the notes below will 

 show. The young are dark in color, the bodies banded 

 and the amount of red very slight. The adult becomes 

 uniformly colored with much red, and with increased age 

 there is a progressive lengthening of the snout and widen- 

 ing of the preorbital. 



Description of adult of 30 inches: Head 3; depth 3 

 (3/i m y«ung): dorsal X, 14; anal III, 18; scales 6 

 (()-5o-i3; eye 6*4 in head; snout 2}4 ; maxillary 2-f. 

 Pectoral 1% . Ventral 2. Anal 3; 3d anal spine 5^; 



