I0 8 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



by light lines on iris; body with a series of seven brown bands on a gray ground; 

 these bands wider than the light interspaces, except the last two; the first three 

 more or less divided by narrow light lines throughout the greater part of their 

 length; the fourth much narrowed below; the third and fifth following it closely 

 throughout its length; a conspicuous, subocellate black spot as large as eye in 

 the fourth dark band, lying in part on back, and in part on soft dorsal; the last 

 of the dark bars at base of caudal nearly black; all fins, except ventrals, more or 

 less distinctly banded; bands on pectoral and caudal narrow, and indicated chiefly 

 as series of spots on rays; those on dorsal and anal in part directly continuous 

 with body markings; the last three on dorsal and last two on anal aligned with 

 bands on caudal peduncle; ventrals light along their anterior margin, then dusky, 

 becoming colorless posteriorly. 



This species as here understood ranges from Beaufort, North Carolina, to the 

 Gulf coast of Florida, S. F. H. 



Ocyanthias martinicensis (Guichenot) 



A mutilated specimen, 80 mm. in length to base of caudal, was found in waste 

 from the tern colony on Long Key. Premaxillaries and maxillaries are missing, 

 the tips of all fins broken, and many scales lost; the following details, however, 

 are still determinable: D. X,i5; A. 111,7; P. 17. Third dorsal spine longest, 4th 

 and later ones of about one length; anal spines strong, 2d and 3d subequal; teeth 

 in lower jaw in a single series except near the symphysis, none depressible; either 

 side of lower jaw with a strong anterior canine directed outward and forward, 

 2 strong retrorse canines close together and much stronger than any adjacent 

 ones just before the tip of the angular ones; vomer, palatines, and tongue covered, 

 or almost completely covered, by villiform teeth; preopercle serrate; opercle end- 

 ing in 3 spines, the median one much the strongest; gill rakers 26; scales strongly 

 ciliate, 37 in longitudinal series. 



The wide tooth-bearing areas on vomer, palatines, and tongue, the long 3d 

 dorsal spine, and the strong median opercular spine seem diagnostic. 



West Indies to Florida. W. H. L. 



Hypoplectrus Gill, 1862. Vacas 



The West Indian species of this genus have given systematists much trouble, 

 and their relations even today are imperfectly understood. Jordan, Evermann, 

 and Clark (Check list, 1930, p. 321) listed them in their varied color phases as no 

 less than fifteen varieties of Hypoplectrus unicolor (Walbaum). This is a situa- 

 tion so intolerable that I venture to set down a few observations tending to 

 clarify it, although some are based on material Tortugas does not afford. 



Of species of Hypoplectrus there are at least three, puella, gemma, and indigo, 

 in Florida and the West Indies which are clearly distinct. The first two are Tor- 

 tugas species, but the third was not taken there. It lacks the blue head markings 

 of puella. It is less compressed through the humeral region than the other species 

 and has the profile scarcely excavated above, and in proportion to the height of 

 the dorsal fin the lateral line is farther from its base. Hypoplectrus bo fin us does 

 not differ from H. indigo structurally. It is a color phase in which the dark bar 



