Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 2203 



2525. ALEXURUS ARMIGER, Jordan & Eichardson. 



Head 4f ; depth 8. D. VI-13; A. 11; V. I, 5; scales about 102-30; eye 8 

 in head; maxillary 2|^; mandible 2^; snont 5|; iuterorbital 4*^; pectoral 

 1*; caudal equals head; ventral 2; last dorsal ray 1?. Body long and low, 

 compressed posteriorly, depressed in front. Head fiattish and broad 

 above, the cheeks moderately tumid. Eyes small, high up, separated by 

 a broad, flattish, iuterorbital space; snout short; mouth moderate, very 

 oblique, the maxillary ceasing below the center of pupil; lower jaw very 

 heavy, oblique, projecting beyond upper, its outline horseshoe-shaped, 

 obtuse in front. Teeth in rather broad bands, the outer enlarged below, 

 but scarcely so above ; none of them canine-like. Top of head with very 

 small scales; cheek« and opercles with rudimentary scales above; pre- 

 opercle with a concealed antrorse hook below, as in Eleotria; scales on 

 body very small, perfectly smooth, partially embedded; scales on nape 

 and throat minute. Gill membranes extending a little forward below, so 

 that the branchiostegals are free from the isthmus. Insertion of dorsal 

 twice as far from middle of base of caudal as from tip of snout ; the lin 

 low, its slender rays slightly filamentous; soft dorsal low, its last ray 

 highest; anal similar, beginning under second dorsal ray; caudal long, 

 bluntly pointed behind, with strongly procurrent base above and below, 

 the base above f length of head, formed of 14 short rays, that below a 

 little shorter, of 12 rays, this procurrent portion forming an angle with 

 the caudal proper where it joins it; pectorals and ventrals short, the ven- 

 trals inserted under pectorals. Color olive green, dusky above, paler 

 below, but everywhere covered with fine black dots; both dorsals with 

 the membranes pale, the rays each barred with black; caudal niesially 

 Idackish, all the rays barred or checkered in fine pattern; pectoral and 

 anal pale, similarly speckled, l)ase of pectoral dusky; ventral finely 

 speckled. La Paz, Lower California; 1 specimen, (U inches long, taken 

 by Mr. James A. Richardson, {armiger, bearing arms, from the concealed 

 spine.) 



Alexurus armiger, Jordan & Richardson, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1895. 511, pi. 48, La Paz. 

 (Type in L. S. Jr. Univ. Mus. Coll. Jamea A. Richardson.) 



8o6. EROTELIS, Poey. 



(ESMERALDAS DE MaR.) 

 Eroielis, Poey, Memorias, n, 273, 1861 (,valencienneiii=smaragdus). 



Body very slender, elongate, covered with minute cycloid scales. Ven- 

 trals separate, the rays I, .5. No teeth on vomer. Lower pharyngeals 

 subtriangiilar, the teeth stiff, villiform, none of them lamelliform. Post- 

 temporal bones short, strongly divergent, the distance between their 

 insertions about equal to the narrow iuterorbital space ; top of head with 

 a strong median keel, highest on the occipital region; no supraoccipital 

 crest; no preopercular spine. Mouth very oblique. One species known; 

 strictly marine. (Name an anagram of Eleotris.) 



