A C'A NTHOPTER YGH. SCOMBR TD.T.. 



TAB. XVIII. 



APLURUS SIMPLEX, Nob. 



Escolar ou Chicolar. 



The Oil-fish, Scour-fish, or Plain-tail. 



Char. Gen. 



Corpus subelongatum, compressum, capiteque cute coriacea, retrorsum echinato-scabra aspenim, 

 posticu utrinque simplex s. ecarinatum : abdomine carinato. 



Caput magnum, simplex, iuerrae. Rostrum subproductiun, maxilla inferiore longiore, apertura 

 brauchiali rictuque vastissimis. Operculum et prseoperculum inermia, plana, integerrima. Denies 

 compressi, ancipites acuti ; exteriii in utraque maxilla uniseriati subaequales ; in superiore internis 

 quibusdam anticis ad apicem prcelongis ; posterioribus vomerinis paucis, palatinisque uniseriatis 

 minoribus. 



Pinnae dorsales duse, numero radiorum subasquali ; antica angusta, continua, sequali, longiore ; 

 secunda breviore triangulari, antice elevata, postice in pinnulas spurias secedente: pinna anali se- 

 cundce dorsali simillima. Pinnae ventrale's parvas, nomiales. Pinna caudalis furcata. Membrana 

 branchiostega septem-radiata. 



Obs. — Omnia Thyrsitis, Cuv., prseter cutis muriculato-asperae structuram, et abdomen carinatum. 

 Cutis coriacea, dura, squammuloso-furfuracea, spinellisque adpressis retrorsis radicatis echinulata. 

 Species unica, notabilis : piscis oceanicus, regionis temperatse, major, unicolor, vorax, edulis ; came 

 oleo scatente, colliquaute. 



Char. Spec, idem ac generis. 



A. simplex, Syn. Mad. Fish. p. 180. (March, 1837.) 



ima D. 14 V. 15 ; 2d* D. 3 V. 4 + 13 — 15 + II. ; A. 2 v. 3 + 14 v. 15 -f II. ; 



M. B. 7 ; Vertffi. 16 abd. + 16 caud. = 32. 



Thyrsiies acantltoderma, Siippl. Mad. Fish, in Proceed. Z. Soc. 1839, p. 78. 



Teiracjonurusi simj^kx, Proceed. Zool. Soc. 1. p. 143. (December, 1833.) 



Longit. = 3 — 5 ped. = 6 X alt. 



Tempus, ajstate, autumno : sed per totum fere annum. 



Locus, in alto, a littore procul : vulg. 



It Avas a true perception of affinity, which occasioned, on its first 

 discovery, the reference of this curious fish, though with a mark of doubt, 

 to Teiragonurus, Risso ; only that, owing in great measure to the po- 

 sition of this genus among the Grey Mullet^ (Miigilida:) in the Regne 

 Animal, far from its natural allies, the nature or degree of this affinity was 

 not correctly estimated, or positively ascertained not to be generic, but 



VOL. I. 



