54 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



Holocentrus coruscus (Poey) 



Holocentrum coruscum Poey, Memorias, vol. 2, i860, p. 158 — Cuba. 



Holocentrus tortngae Jordan and Thompson, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 (1905), 

 p. 236, fig. 1 — Garden Key, Tortugas, Florida. 



Holocentrus puncticiilatus Barbour, Bull. Mus. Comp. Z06L, vol. 46, 1905, p. 117 — Ber- 

 muda. 



This species is not rare in reef patches or in isolated hollow coral heads. Like 

 Holocentrus ascensionis and H. vexillarius, it is nocturnal. 



Holocentrus coruscus, at least when mature, is very readily distinguished from 

 H. vexillarius by its slighter build (depth 3.5 vs. 2.9 in standard length), by its 

 black spot on the dorsal fin, its lack of yellow on the soft dorsal and caudal fins, 

 its generally redder color, and the more glistening silver streaks on the rows of 

 scales, much narrower dorsally than in H. vexillarius. The spines between the 

 border of the premaxillary groove and the nostrils are longer and stronger in 

 H. coruscus, and include a particularly strong one above the posterior aperture, 

 where the other species has none, but there is no spine between the posterior 

 narial border and the eye, where one appears in H. vexillarius. The supraorbital 

 ridge in H. coruscus is almost smooth, but strongly serrate in the other and much 

 more spinose mesially. 



Three specimens, taken in the morning, had fed on small shrimps and crabs. 



Head with a red line below and behind eye extending to below posterior angle 

 of preopercle; a fainter line parallel with the first extending back from tip of 

 mandible to anterior end of interopercle; cheek otherwise brilliant white; lower 

 jaw and its membranes below scarcely different. Body with alternating red and 

 silvery lines; membranes between dorsal spines tipped with white outwardly, the 

 remainder of the outer half or two-thirds of fin with a longitudinal red band, 

 replaced by black nearly to 3d spine, and white ventrally to this; spines red; soft 

 dorsal and caudal reddish; pectorals and ventrals almost colorless and trans- 

 parent; anal reddish from 3d spine to 2d soft ray. 



West Indies, and northward to Florida. W. H. L. 



Holocentrus vexillarius (Poey) 



Holocentrum vexillarium Poey, Memorias, vol. 2, i860, p. 158 — Cuba. 



Holocentrum sicciferum Cope, Trans. Amer. Philos. Soc, vol. 14, 1871, p. 465 — New 



Providence, Bahamas. 

 Holocentrus sicafer Jordan and Thompson, Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 (1905), 



p. 236. Gudger, Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. 391, 1929, p. 160. 

 Holocentrus coruscus Beebe and Tee- Van (at least in part not of Poey), Zoologica, vol. 



10, 1928, p. 80 — Port-au-Prince Bay, Haiti. 

 Holocentrus coruscus Metzelaar (not of Poey), Trop. atl. Vissch., 19 19, p. 43, fig. 15. 



This species is intermediate in size between Holocentrus ascensionis and H. 

 coruscus. Its habits are very much like theirs, and like them it feeds by night 

 and lies hidden by day. A specimen 41 mm. long was included in collections 

 from Bird Key rookery. 



It has the alternating lines displayed by fish of this genus, but its general cast 

 is brown rather than red. Its cheek is dusky except for a red dash from below 



