NO. 1287. JAPANESE TRIGGER-FISHES— JORDAN AND FOWLER. 259 



7. BALISTAPUS ACULEATUS (Linnaeus). 



Balhtes aciileatus Linn.eus, Syst. Nat., 10th ad., 1758, p. 328; India. — Bleeker, 

 Atl. Ichth. Balist., 1865-69, p. 120, 1866, pi. 11, fig. 3; East Indies, on all 

 islands (and of all writers) .— Gunther, Cat. Fish., VIII, 1870, p. 223; He de 

 France, Johanna, Zanzibar, Moluccas, Amboyna, China, Fiji, Seychelles, 

 Mauritius. 



Balistes ornaUssinus Lesson, Voy. Coquille, I, 1824, p. 119, pi. x, fig. 1. 



Balistes armaius Cuvier, Regne Anim. Illust., pi. cxii, fig. 2. 



Balistes striatus Gronow, Syst., Ed. Gray, 1854, p. 32; American seas. 



Head 2f, depth 2i, D. III. 25; A. 22; scales U in the lateral line. 

 Body oblong, elliptical, no groove before the eye. On the sides of the 

 caudal peduncle are 3 rows of strong spines, directed forward, con- 

 sisting of 11, 9, and 5, respectively. Head long, angular, and deeper 

 than long; the snout very long, nearl}^ as long as the head, slightly 

 convex; eye small and high up, 6i in head, 5f in snout, and If in 

 interorbital space; interorbital space moderately convex; lips broad, 

 thick, and fleshy; corners of mouth fleshy for some distance backward; 

 snout not scaled; teeth large and strong, the middle the larger, then 

 diminishing toward either end, wedge shape, the ends wider than the 

 bases, the cutting edges notched, and in the upper jaw 8 in the outer 

 and 6 in the inner series, the latter with their edges rounded; in the 

 lower jaw 8 in a single series; the upper jaw closes outside the lower; 

 gill opening equal to interorbital space, and with 4 enlarged bony 

 scales behind; scales 29 in a transverse series from spinous dorsal to 

 anal; pectoral one-fourth longer than gill opening; first dorsal spine 

 very robust, larger than pectoral; dorsal and anal highest anteriorly, 

 rounded; caudal subtruncate; ventral movable, very rough and with 

 several strong spines behind; ridge of bell}^ before ventral also very 

 rough; caudal peduncle deeper than broad and a little less than the 

 interorbital space; body not very rough; the scales largest on the 

 trunk. 



Color in .spirits pale ])rownish above, lighter below; spinous dorsal, 

 large patch on sides behind gill opening sending a line to .space between 

 the dor.sals and another bi'oader track to posterior half of soft dorsal, 

 dark ])rown; broad band across interorbital space grayish brown with 3 

 dark-])rown bars across from one eye to the other, the narrower inter- 

 spaces bluish, a brown band from eye to base of pectoral edged nar- 

 rowly with grayish and a narrow gray or bluish line from eye running 

 convexl}^ to lower base of pectoral, a l)rownish bar from naked region 

 at corner of mouth nearly to pectoral, with a wash of grayish white 

 below; sides of belly from behind and below enlarged scales behind 

 gill opening to vent, together with 4 posterior oblique bars running in 

 the same direction and patch on caudal peduncle in which spines are. 

 placed, white; some black about the bases of the caudal spines; vent 

 and narrow" stripe at base of pectoral in front blackish brown; fins 



