206 PAPERS FROM TORTUGAS LABORATORY vol. xxxiv 



elusive. Sexual maturity is attained early; a female 6$ mm. long contained ripe 

 eggs. Her first projecting lateral canines had not appeared, nor did others show 

 any at 65 and 70 mm., though one from St. Vincent at 70 mm. already has 2 on 

 either side, and a slightly smaller one has 2 and 1 respectively. No males as small 

 as these, and known to be mature, have been secured, but one of 82 mm. has 

 2 pairs, and one 107 mm. long has 4 on one side and 1 on the other. 



I do not know at what least length the male coloration is developed. Adults 

 are bluish gray above, more green on head, and bluish white below; a red stripe 

 extending from upper margin of opercular cleft almost to base of caudal, set off 

 by light lines above and below, and spotted with the ground color; a narrow 

 red line from before eye to angle of mouth, and a second paralleling it behind; 

 iris red; half a dozen red spots below and behind eye; an orange-red dash or 

 dashes across base of pectoral, and a blue spot at base of its upper rays; lower 

 lip blue. 



Females are red, and more or less mottled with brown. They have the power 

 to assume a pattern of stripes as well as a blotched pattern. 



Brazil to Florida and Bermuda. W. H. L. 



Cryptotomus auropunctatus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Callyodon auropunctatus Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. nat. poiss., vol. 14, 1839, p. 290 — 



Santo Domingo. 

 Cryptotomus ustus Jordan and Evermann (part not of Cuvier and Valenciennes), Bull. 



U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, pt. 2, 1898, p. 1624. 

 Cryptotomus beryllinus Jordan and Swain, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 7, 1884, p. 101 — 



Havana; Key West, Florida. 



The larger of 2 type specimens is still in Paris in good condition. It is 175 mm. 

 in length, its depth at dorsal origin 43 mm.; head 48 mm., diameter of orbit 8.0 

 mm., interorbital width 10.0 mm.; snout 19.0 mm. On the left side of upper jaw 

 it has 1 slight recurved canine, with the site of another indicated; right side with 

 1 and the base of another; curvature of dorsal and ventral contours of head 

 almost the same. I have seen other specimens from Haiti, Alligator Reef, and 

 Key West (types of C. beryllinus), as well as many of all sizes from Tortugas, 

 and still others from Trinidad and Colon. Jordan and Evermann reported what 

 may be considered the same species from Charleston and Pensacola. This is a 

 northern form allied to Cryptotomus ustus, but distinct from it. 



Cryptotomus ustus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) attains at least the length of 

 260 mm. It is sexually dimorphic. By color pattern alone males of 187 mm., and 

 perhaps considerably less, are readily distinguishable from other American 

 species. Even in material long in alcohol, traces of a lilac line from eye to upper 

 jaw just behind lateral canines and four or five irregular rows of dark spots 

 crossing caudal fin betray them. The size and proportions of the largest are also 

 distinctive. In the Museum of Comparative Zoology are 5 large males, and in the 

 British Museum another, all from Brazil. Cuvier and Valenciennes described 

 this sex very well, but their plate appears to show the female. 



Cryptotomus auropunctatus, too, is sexually dimorphic in coloration. The adult 



