Jordan mid Evcrmann. — Fishes of North America. 1439 



ol>]ique. * Panama, apparently rare ; quite variable, especially in the arma- 

 ture of its preopercle. (xpvdo?, gold; XevHoi;, white.) 



Corvina chrysoleuca, Gunthee, Pish. Central America, 387 and 427, pi. 67, flg. 1, 1869, 



Panama. 

 Scia'na chrysoleuca, Jordan & Gilbert, Bull.U. S. Fish Comm. 1881, 316. 

 Bairdiclla chrysoleuca, Jordan & Eigenmann, I. c, 389, 1889. 



581. STELLIFER (Cuvier) Oken. 



Leg Stellifcres, Cuvier, R^gne Animal, Ed. i, 283, 1817 (stdUfer). 

 S'tellifer (CuviER) Oken, Isis, 1182, 1817 (stellifer). 

 Stellifervs, Stark, Elements Nat. Hist., i, 459, \«2% (stellifer). 

 Hovioprion,\ Holbrook, Ichth. S. Carol., 1st ed., 168, 1856 (lanceolata) . 

 Zestis, Gilbert, new subgenus (oscitans). 

 Zestidium, Gilbert, new subgenus (illecebrosus). 

 Stellicarens, Gilbert, new subgenus (zestocarus) . 



This genus is composed of small species, all Americau, allied to Bairdi- 

 ella and Ophioscton, but di.stinguished by the remarkably spongy and 

 cavernous construction of the bones of the skull. The septa are recluced 

 to the thinness of the walls of honeycomb. The skull is also very broad 

 and much depressed between the eyes. The species vary considerably 

 among themselves in these and other respects, and may be thrown into 

 4 subgenera, distinguished by the armature of the preopercle. (stella, 

 star; fero, I bear, from the radiated appearance of the spongy suborbi- 

 tals; ''L'etoile que ce poisson porte a rceil, m'a engage a le denommer" 

 (Bloch). 



Zesti.s (ietTToi, soft-boiled) : 



I. Preopercle with two strong spines only, the uppermost directed backward, the lower 



downward. 

 a. Jaws snbeqnal, the mouth very oblique, large; teeth of lower .jaw unequal, the inner 

 series enlarged. OSCITans, 1821. 



aa. Jaws unequal, the lower short and included; mouth less oblique; teeth of lower 

 jaw in a villiform band, subequal. 



6. Mouth moderate, tlie maxillary 2J in head; lower spine of preopercle directed 

 downward and forward. fdrthi 1822. 



II. Preopercle serrate, its spinules 6 to 20. 

 Zestidium (diminutive of Zestis) : 



c. Lowermost spiuule of preopercle directed downwards; body robust. 



d. Dorsal rays XIV, 20 or 21 ; pectorals short, Ij in head ; gill rakers 5+10; col- 

 oration dark. illecebrosus, 1823. 

 Stellifer : 

 cc. Lowermost spinule of preopercle not directed downwards; caudal fln pointed. 

 e. Mouth large, oblique, the maxillary 2 to 2^ in length of head; snout very 

 short, little projecting. 

 /. Preopercle with 3 or 4 spines next the angle, divergent, considerably 

 larger than the others. 



*This species, altliough technically a Tiairdiella, shows numerous atiinitios with Ophio- 

 scton seierus and other species of that geiuis. It marks the transition from one group of 

 Sciienoids to the other, from those related to Larimus to those allied to Scicena. 



tThe generic name Homoprion w.as based on a species each of Stellifer .and Bairdiella. 

 It was restricted by Gill to the former group, and should therefore be regarded as a synonym 

 of Stellifer^ 



