84. CENTRARCHID.E ARCHOPLITES. 465 
Variable. Mississippi Valley, &c.; abundant southward, chiefly in 
sluggish streams; valued as a food-fish. 
(RaOuesqne, Amer. Monthly Mag. 1818, 41 ; Raf. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1818, 
417 ; Raf. Ichth. Oh. 1820, 33; Jordan & Copeland, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1876 : 
Pomoxys siorerim, hrevicauda, intermedias, and j^'otacanth us Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 
Phila. 1865, 64-66; Ctntrarchus ^litidus Giiuther, i, 257.) 
aa. Dorsal spines 7 or 8. {Hypcristius* GiU.) 
725, P. sparoMes (Lac.) Grd. — Calico Bass; Grass Bass; Barjish; Slrawherry Bass. 
Body oblong, elevated, much compressed. Head long, its profile not 
strongly S shaped; the projection of tbe snout and ante-dorsal region 
and the depression over the eye being less marked than in P. annularis. 
Mouth smaller than in P. annularis, the maxillary reaching about to the 
posterior edge of pupil, the mandible shorter than pectorals. Scales on 
cheeks in G rows. Fins very high ; anal higher than dorsal, its height 
4-5 times in length of body. Color silvery olive, mottled with clear 
olive-green, the dark mottlings gathered in irregular small bunches, and 
covering the whole body ; vertical fins with dark olive reticulations sur- 
rounding pale spots; the anal marked like the dorsal ; a dusky opercular 
spot. Head 3 ; depth 2. I). VII or VIII, 15; A. VI, 17 or 18 ; Lat. 1. 41. 
L. 12 inches. Great Lakes and Upper Mississippi Valley to IS'ew Jersey, 
and southward to Florida and Louisiana ; chiefly in lowland streams and 
lakes ; a handsome fish, valued as food. 
{Lairus sparoides Lacep. Hist. Nat. Poiss. iii, 1802, 517; and iv, 717: Centrarchus 
sparo'tdes C. & V. iii, 8, 1829: Centrarchus hexacanthus C. & V. vii, 458, 1831 : Centrar- 
chus hexacanthus Giintlier, i, 257; Pomoxys hexacanthus Holbrook, Icbtb. S. C. 29: 
Pomoxys nigromacuJatus Jordan, Man. Vert. ed. 2, 247, and Bnll. U. S. Nat. Mns. x, 37, 
based on Cantharus nigromaculatus Le Snenr MSS., noticed by C. & V. iii, 8.) 
244.— ARCIIOPILITES Gill. 
(Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1881, 165: type Centrarchus interrupius Girard.) 
Body oblong, compressed, the back elevated. Mouth large, oblique, 
the broad maxillary with a well developed supernumerary bone. Teeth 
on jaws, vomer, palatines, tongue, and pterygoids ; lingual teeth in two 
patches ; pharyngeal teeth jiointed. Gill-rakers long and strong, com- 
pressed, numerous, about 20 in number, some of them on the upper por- 
tion of the arch. Branchiostegals 7. Operculum emargiuate, the lower 
lioint much the larger, striate, the ridges terminating in small spines; 
preopercle, interopercle, snbopercle, suborbital and preorbital with their 
inferior edges conspicuously serrate; dentaries and preopercle with large 
muciferous depressions or pits. Dorsal fin with about 13 spines; anal 
* Gill, Amer. Jouru. Sci. Arts, 1834, 92 : tyi)e Centrarchus hexacanthus C. *&; V. {yitrjp, 
high; zdrzoj', sail.) 
Bull. ISTat. Mus. Ko. 16 30 
