i 9 4 r CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS j^ 



posteriorly; present also on vomer and palatines, on the former in a weak and 

 sometimes incomplete series along the anterior border, and more aggregated 

 toward the inferior margin on the latter. This dentition is thoroughly repre- 

 sentative of the genus Upeneus, in the sense in which it seems that name must 

 be accepted. 

 Known from Cuba and Tortugas, Florida. W. H. L. 



Family SCIAENIDAE. Croakers, Drums, etc. 



Odontoscion dentex (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



(Plate 20, figure i) 



Occasionally seen skulking under corals. Nowhere else as commonly found as 

 in a patch of Acropora growing in 12 to 16 feet of water off the Laboratory 

 dock. 



Gray above, silvery below, with base of pectoral black. 



Known from Trinidad, Panama, West Indies, and Tortugas. W. H. L. 



Menticirrhus americanus (Linnaeus) 



Dr. Longley evidently did not find this species. It is included in the fauna of 

 Tortugas on the authority of Jordan and Thompson (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 

 24, 1904 (1905), p. 244), who stated, "Taken by Dr. Henshall at Garden Key in 

 1889." It was not seen at Key West during several years of intermittent collecting 

 by Bureau of Fisheries investigators. 



Texas to New York. S. F. H. 



Menticirrhus littoralis (Holbrook) 



This species is included here solely on the record by Jordan and Thompson 

 (Bull. U. S. Bur. Fish., vol. 24, 1904 (1905), p. 244), who reported one small 

 specimen. Dr. Longley evidently did not see it there. 



South Atlantic and Gulf coasts. S. F. H. 



Eques lanceolatus (Linnaeus) 



Taken at a number of points in the 10-fathom channels within the group, and 

 at 40 fathoms south of Tortugas. Five specimens 125 to 175 mm. long, taken 

 from June to August, were females in breeding condition. 



Ground color pale gray, slightly duskier along base of dorsal fin; vertical dark 

 bar through eye as wide as pupil; other dark bands in pattern white-margined. 



W. H. L. 



The "other dark bands" mentioned consist of one passing downward from 

 nape, curving backward, crossing opercle to base of ventral, then continuing on 

 that fin and across chest; and a second one extending from tip of spinous dorsal 

 to its base, then curving downward and backward on body and extending to tip 

 of caudal, becoming horizontal posteriorly. 



A juvenile, 31 mm. long, 15 mm. to base of caudal, was taken on July 20, 1938, 



