ADDITIONS TO THE FISH FAUNA OF LORD HOWE ISLAND — "WAITE. 1 95 



Those below-named, previously known from Australia, are new 

 to the fauna of New South Wales, of which colony Lord Howe 

 Island is a dependency: — 



Isistius brasiliensis, Quoy and Gaimard. 



Hi])pocampus hippocampus, Linnseus. 



Epinephelus tauvhia, Forskal, 



Therapon jarbua, Forskal. 



Ostracion cubicus, Linnseus. 



Isistius brasiliensis, Quoy and Gaimard. 

 (Fi^s. 1, 2). 



Under the name Zeirts/eroa;, Kner*well described this species from 

 Australia, but without any more definite habitat. It has not been 

 since recorded from our waters. The example now under notice was 

 sent to the Trustees from Lord Rowe Island by Mrs. T. Nicholls, 

 and forms a most interesting addition to the fauna of the Island. 

 In his Whaling Voyage, F. D. Bennettf described, as Squalus 

 fulgens, two examples taken at different periods of the voyage by 

 means of a tow net, proving the pelagic habit. The largest of 

 these was an adult female, and measured eighteen inches in length. 

 Ours is a male, and measures 390 mm. ( = 15^ inches), it possesses 

 the dark band across the chest, and the white edged tins of Scymnus 

 torquatus, Valenciennes. 



The upper teeth are arranged in thirty-three rows, in a band of 

 crescent shape, four or five deep mesially, and two or three later- 

 ally; each tooth is strongly curved outwards and backwards, and 

 the whole series is depressible. The palate is very hard and is 

 evidently the counterpart of the tongue which is furnished with 

 a similarly hard plate extending all along the front and lateral 

 margins. 8uch crushing surfaces would appear to be unnecessarily 

 developed if used only for reducing the weak shells of lanthina 

 and Reclusia, or even the armament of Natdiloyrapsus. 



The lower teeth form a single functional fixed 

 series arranged in rather more than a semicircle, 

 with a diameter of 35 •5 mm. in the specimen ex- 

 amined. Each tooth consists of a thin erect plate 

 with a triangular apex, the margins of which are 

 smooth, the basal portion is faintly striated and has 

 a central pit connected with the basal edge by a 

 short channel ; the median tooth is wholly exposed 

 and bi-symmetrical (fig. 1), the lateral teeth are im- 

 bricate and their apices directed away from the 

 symphysis, on approaching the angle of the inouth 

 they become smaller. There are fifteen teeth on ^ig- 1- 

 each side of the median one, making thirty-one in all. 



* Kner— Denks. Akad. Wiss. Wien. xxiv.. 1865, p. 10, pi. iv., %. 2. 

 t Bennett — Whaling Voyage, ii., 1840, p. 255. 



