70 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



Subgenus ALEPES Swainson. 



Scales small. No vomerine or palatine teeth. 



Alepes melanoptera Swainson. 



Lardner's Cab. Cyclop. Nat. Hist., II, 1839, p. 248. (Based on Wort parah 

 Russell, Fishes of Coromandel, II, 1803, p. 40, PI. 155. Vizagapatam.) 



Head 3i; depth 2i; D. I, VIII-I, 24; A. II, I, 20; P. ii, 18; V. I, 5; 



scales 38 in lateral line, remaining portion composed of 55 scutes ; about 

 15 scales between spinous dorsal and uppermost part of lateral line; 

 width of head 2| in its length; depth of head 1^; mandible 2^; fourth 

 dorsal spine 3; second dorsal ray 2; second anal ray 2^; pectoral 1^; 

 least depth of caudal peduncle 5^; snout 3^ in head, from its tip; eye 

 3f ; interorbital space 3; maxillary 2§. 



Body moderately long, compressed, anterior profiles about evenly 

 convex, and greatest depth at origin of soft dorsal. Caudal peduncle 

 slender, compressed above and below, its least depth If in its length, 

 and width a trifle less than its depth. 



Head compressed, deep, and anterior profile obtuse. Snout convex,, 

 blunt, with upper jaw projecting. Eye small, anterior, and with a 

 rather narrow adipose eyelid. Mouth small, oblique, upper jaw pro- 

 jecting beyond snout, and small maxillary reaching a little beyond 

 front rim of orbit. Posterior distal expanded extremity of maxillary 

 nearly equal to ^ of orbit. Prcorbital thin, and upper edge of maxil- 

 lary slipping below all but a small portion posteriorly. Teeth minute, 

 uniscrial, and close together along edges of jaws. Vomer and palatines 

 edentulous. Tongue with minute weak asperities, its own shape 

 elongate, free and rounded in front. Lips thin. Nostrils close to- 

 gether, lateral, much nearer eye than tip of upper jaw, and anterior 

 with a slightly elevated fleshy rim. Interorbital space broad, elevated, 

 and giving place to median trenchant ridge which extends from above 

 nostrils to occiput. Preopercular ridge and margin slightly inclined 

 forward. 



Gill-opening extending forward till below nostrils. Rakers 6+19, 

 compressed, rather broad, and much shorter than filaments. Fila- 

 ments about f of orbit, and pseudobranchipe much shorter. Isthmus 

 narrow, not trenchant, and its lower surface very triangularly elongate. 



Scales small, numerous, cycloid, and narrowly imbricated. Spinous 

 dorsal with a narrow basal sheath. Soft dorsal and anal with anterior 

 basal portion enclosed in rather broad basal scaly sheaths. Checks 

 just below eye, and upper side of head posteriorly, also upper portion 

 of opercle, with small scales. Base of caudal covered with small 

 scales, but without any keels at bases of lobes. Lateral line strongly 



