1941 CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS IO /$ 



Dr. Longley apparently made no notes on the color of the adult, and there are 

 no large specimens in his collection. Concerning this species Mowbray, whose 

 paper has been cited, stated: "/. radiatus is a species more variable in color than 

 any other of the genus known to me. It has from the earliest times been described 

 under various names owing to its changes with age and depth of water in which 

 it lives. There is a marked change of pattern as well as color, the most marked 

 change being the black quadrate blotches on the back which disappear when the 

 fish reaches between 8 and n inches. These blotches never appear in the adult, 

 but the whitish areas that separate them in the young at times do." 



Mowbray also stated : "One of the interesting habits of both species [H. radiatus 

 and H. bivittatus] is that at sundown they burrow under the sand to sleep and 

 remain there until daylight." 



The scales in this species are somewhat reduced in advance of the dorsal, there 

 being five or six oblique rows next to the median line of the nape. Two canines 

 are present anteriorly in the upper jaw and 4 in the lower jaw. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, northward to the Bahamas and Florida. 



S.F.H. 



Halichoeres garnoti (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Jitlis garnoti Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. nat. poiss., vol. 13, 1839, p. 390 — Martinique. 

 Iridio decoratus Bean, Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. 19, 1906, p. 29 — Bermuda; Field 

 Columbian Mus., Zool. Ser., vol. 7, 1906, p. 64, fig. 5. 



A specimen about 125 to 150 mm. long was observed on rocky bottom east of 

 East Key. 



Anterior half of body of this fish was yellow; a black girdle about the middle 

 a fingerbreadth wide; posterodorsal quadrant black like the girdle and con- 

 tinuous with it; posteroventral quadrant yellow, but not as bright yellow as the 

 head. Later a second individual, larger than the first, was seen at the same place, 

 and a third one outside Bird Key reef. 



A specimen about 90 mm. long, from the western margin of Loggerhead bank, 

 served to identify Bean's Iridio decoratus. This small fish was largely raw sienna 

 above a line from angle of mouth to a point near end of dorsal base. It was 

 lighter and more yellow below, with only a spot before eye, and three fine pen- 

 cilings behind eye, with spots of the same dark color showing on the scales of 

 seven series on either side of nape and on anterior base of dorsal. 



Later the color proved to be variable in the aquarium. A dark band appeared 

 under spines 6 to 9. The head above verged toward raw sienna, but its penciling 

 and spotting remained unchanged. Below a horizontal line tangent to eye at its 

 inferior margin the under surface as far as the dark girdle was largely bright 

 yellow. Two blue bars on a pink ground were present beneath lower jaw. Behind 

 the bar the body was more orange. From anterior margin of the bar to end of 

 dorsal base the scales of the next row above lateral line each had a large pale blue 

 spot. The caudal was rosy, with four or five pale blue lines crossing it. 



W. H. L. 



