44 SPAEID^E. 



LETHRINUS, Cuv. 



136. Lethrinus latifrons. [204.] 

 Lethrinus latifrons, Riipp. N. W. Fische, p. 118, t. 28. f. 4; Giinth. Fish. i. p. 458. 



Zanzibar. Bed Sea. East-Indian seas. 



137. Lethrinus longirostris, sp. n. Plate VII. fig. 2. [364.] 



D. £. A. J. L. lat. 48. L. tvansv. 6/17. 



Diagnosis. — The height of the body is contained four, and the length of the head 

 three times and a half in the total length. Snout very much elongated and pointed, the 

 posterior nostril occupying the middle of the length of the head. The diameter of the 

 eye is contained five times and a half in the length of the head ; and the distance be- 

 tween the eyes is about equal to the diameter of the orbit. No true molars, canines 

 moderate, teeth of lateral series slightly compressed and pointed. Caudal emarginate. 

 The third and fourth dorsal spines longest, and longer than the longest ray ; ventrals and 

 pectorals reach as far as vent. Violet, with darker markings about the head and snout. 



Description of the specimen. — This species is low, elongated, and with an unusually 

 long snout. The greatest height of the body is above the base of the ventrals, where it 

 is one-fourth of the total length. The upper profile of the fish, from the origin of the 

 dorsal to the occiput, is nearly horizontal ; thence it descends in a straight line, forming 

 an angle of forty degrees with the axis of the fish. 



The length of the head is contained thrice and a half in the total length. The 

 length of the intermaxillary process equals the distance from the anterior margin of the 

 orbit to the extremity of the operculum. The maxillary bone does not nearly reach 

 the vertical from the anterior nostril. The eye is situated far back in the head ; its 

 diameter is one-third of the length of the snout, and it is contained five times and a 

 half in that of the head. The lips are thick and fleshy. The operculum is scaly and 

 terminates in a very distinct point, with a rather deep curve above it. The suboper- 

 culum also is scaly, the prae- and interoperculum are naked. The scapular and humeral 

 bones are distinctly visible and entire. 



The dorsal spines are slender, the third and fourth being longest; the former is contained 

 thrice and a half in the length of the head, and is twice the length of the first. The 

 longest of the soft rays of the dorsal fin (the fifth) is equal in length to the third spine. 



The distance between the end of the dorsal and the root of the caudal is about equal 

 in length to the base of the soft dorsal. 



The caudal is forked, the lobes being pointed. 



The anal spines are rather stouter than those of the dorsal ; the first is half the 

 length of the third, and the second is intermediate in length between them ; the third 

 is equal to the last of the dorsal, and is about one-fifth of the length of the head. 



