.542 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Color. Dusky olive brown, somewhat clouded; sides with a 

 few irregular whitish spots; young spotted with brownish. 



South Atlantic coast, U. S., straying northward to coast of 



Rhode Island. The species is frequently taken in moderately 



deep water off Charleston, Pensacola and Key West. Mitchill 



described it from the Straits of Bahama. The common name 



is given in allusion to the soapy feeling of the skin. The fish is 



small and has no value for food. Nothing is recorded of its 



habits. 



Family lobotidae 



Triple-tails 

 Genus lobotes Cuvier 

 Body oblong, compressed, and elevated, covered with moder- 

 ate-sized, weakly ctenoid scales; profile of head concave, the 

 :snout prominent; mouth moderate, oblique, with thick lips; 

 upper jaw Aery protractile; lower jaw the longer; maxillary 

 without supplemental bone; jaws with narrow bands of villi- 

 form teeth, in front of which is a row of larger conical teeth 

 directed backward; no teeth on vomer or palatines; preorbital 

 narrower than eye; preopercle strongly serrate. Branchi- 

 ostegals six. Dorsal fin continuous, with 12 spines which may 

 be depressed in a shallow groove; soft rays of dorsal and anal 

 fins elevated; anal spines graduated; bases of soft dorsal and 

 anal thickened and scaly; caudal rounded. Air bladder present. 

 Pyloric caeca three. 



2()7 Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch) 

 Flasher; Triple-tail 



Bolocentrtts surinamensis Block, Ichthyol. pi. 243, 1790, Surinam. 

 Bodiaiuis triiinis Mitchill, Trans. Lit. & Pliil. Soc. N. Y. I, 418, pi. Ill, 



lig. 10, 1815, Powles Hook, N. J. 

 Lobotes oiictontm Gunther. Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. I, 338, 1859. 

 Lobotes surinamensis Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 319, 1830; 



De Kay. X. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 88, pi. 18, fig. 49, 1842, New York; 



HOLBROOK. Ichth. S. C. ed. 1,159, pi. 23, fig. 2, 1856; Jordan & Gilbert, 



Bull. 16, IT. S. Nat. Mus. 555, 1883; Jordan & Evermann, Bull. 47, 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 1235, 1896. pi. CXCIV, fig. 510, 1900; H. M. Smith. 



Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 100, 1898; Sherwood & Edwards. Bull. IT. S. F. 



C. 1901, 28. 1901, Narragausett Bay. 



The body is oblong, deep, its depth four ninths of its length 

 without the caudal; least depth of caudal peduncle three tenths 



