Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 1247 



525. NEOM^NIS, Girard. 



(Snappers.) 



Xeomcenis, GiRAED, U. S. Mex. Bound. Survey, Zool., Fishes, 18, 1859 (emarginatug= 



griseus) . 

 liaizero, Jordan & Feslkr, Rept. TJ. S. Fish Comm. 1889 (1893), 438 (aratus). 



Body oblong, compressed, the back somewhat elevated; head long, 

 naked above, except for a broad oblique band of scales at the nape; nos- 

 trils normally close together, neither with a tnbe; mouth large, the jaws 

 with bands of villiform teeth, besides which is usually an outer series of 

 larger teeth in each jaw, and 2 to 4 stronger teeth or canines in front of 

 upper jaw; vomer with villiform teeth; villiform teeth on the palatines; 

 usually one or more patches of teeth on the tongue in the adult; no molar 

 teeth ; no teeth on pterygoids ; preopercle without notch or with a shallow 

 emargination ; posterior limb of preopercle finely serrate; gill rakers 

 rather few, shortish; soft rays of dorsal and anal scaly at base; dorsal 

 spines 10 (rarely 11), continuous with the soft rays; caudal lunate or 

 forked ; anal rays 7 to 9. Interorbital area not flat nor separated from the 

 occipital region, the median and lateral crests procurrent on it, and the 

 frontal narrowed forward; fronto-occipital crest ceasing anteriorly far 

 from front of frontal, usually behind eye; prefrontal with posterior areas 

 impressed, long and cribriform ; parietal crest not confluent with orbital 

 rim, but nearly or quite joined anteriorly to fronto-occipital crest (in 

 species examined) ; prefrontals with the articular facets arising from 

 diverging V-shaped ridges; basi.sphenoid with an anterior lobiform 

 extension. Vertebrte 10 -|- 14 = 24. We venture to separate the American 

 Pargos or Snappers from the Old World genus Lutianus on the following- 

 characters, distinctive so far as known : Parietal crest usually confluent 

 anteriorly with the orbital rim, never joined anteriorly to the fronto- 

 occipital crest; top of head naked; a more or less isolated band of scales 

 extending obliquely on each side of nape; notch on preopercle for the 

 reception of knob of interopercle shallow and broad, sometimes obsolete, 

 otherwise essentially as in Lutianus.* Species very niimerous, chiefly 



* The true relations of Neomcenit, Lutianus, Oenyoroge, Evoplites. and Proamblys are 

 yet to be determined. It seems to us that none of our speiies is congeneric with Lutianus 

 lutianus, the type of Lutianus, while Evoplites differs materially from the type of Gcnyo- 

 roge. A full study of the skeletons must, however, be made before these genera can be 

 placed on a sound basis. The following is the synonymy of the Asiatic groups : 



LUTIANUS, Bloch. 



Lutianus, Bloch, Tchthyologia, iv, 107. 1790 {lutianus) ; the name first spelled Lutianus, 

 but later changed, on the plates and el.se where, to Lutjanus. It is from Jkan luijang, 

 the Malayan name of Lutianus lutianus. 



Mesoprion, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., n, 441, 1828 {lutianus, etc.). 



^ Ilypoplites, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 236 (retrospinis) . 



GENYOROGE, Cantor. 



Diacope, CcrvTEK & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ii, 410, 1828 {sebce) ; name preoccupied 



in Lepidoptera. 

 Genyoroge, Cantor, Malayan Fishes, 12, 1850 (sebce) ; substitute for Diacope. 



PROAMBLYS, Gill. 



Proamblys, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 236 {nigra = macolor). 

 Macular, Blkekkr, Poiss. Amboina, Nederl. Tidskr. Dierk., 277, 1867 {macolor). 



