NO. 1919. FTSntlS FROM JAVA— BEAN AND WEED. 601 



LACTARIUS LACTARIUS (Bloch and Schneider). 



* 



Thirteen specimens, 80 to 100 mm. long. Batavia, 11; Relaboean 

 Ratoe, 2. 



SCOMBEROIDES TOL (Cuvler and Valenciennes). 



Twenty-one specimens, 100 to 200 mm. long. Batavia. 



These fish are the same species as the one figured imdor the name 

 moadetta by Day. 



They are quite difi'erent from the Hawaiian specimens described 

 as sancti-petri which have the scales lanceolate instead of linear as in 

 the Javan specimens. 



The Hawaiian specimens are undoubtedly properly identified with 

 the -S'. saiuti-petri of Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



SCOMBEROIDES LYSAN (Forskal). 



Ten specimens, 120 to 190 mm. long. Batavia. 



These specimens are easily separable at a glance from the two 

 more slender forms, S. tol and S. sancti-petri. 



The fishes belonging to the genera Scomheroides and Oligoplites 

 are so similar in form that on external characters they seem to con- 

 stitute but a smgle genus. However, the American species have 

 only 4-5 (occasionally 6) spines in the first dorsal (it is possible that 

 all the counts of 6 have been made by including the last procumbent 

 spine), while those of Asia and Africa have G or 7 spines (probably C by 

 atrophy of the first). This character would not be worthy of generic 

 rank if it were not supported by other anatomic ones. The scales 

 in all the American forms are linear, while they are lanceolate in all 

 the African and Asiatic ones except S. tol, which has them linear. 



The most important character is one that was first mentioned and 

 figured by Liitken in Spolia Atlantica,^ the arrangement of the teeth 

 in the roof of the mouth. In both there is practically a continuous 

 band of teeth across the head of the vomer, the entire length of the 

 palatine and on the upper arm of the ptery^goid. In addition to this 

 Scomheroides has a broad patch of teeth on the mesopterj^goid. We 

 quote Liitken's statement from the English edition : 



For the subdivision of this genus it would be best to employ a difference hitherto 

 unnoticed, namely, the existence or absence of teeth on the pterygoids side by side 

 with those of the palatines and vomer, in accordance with the followins; scheme, the 

 divisions of which must, however, only be estimated as sections or subgenera, and not 

 as true genera. 



A. 4-5 (G) dorsal spines; scales linear; no teeth on the j^torygoids. C. occidentalis, 

 saliens, palomcta {Oligoplites, Gill). 



B. 7 dorsal spines, and teeth on the pterygoids. 1. Scales linear: C.tol{C.moaditta, 

 Klz., perhaps the young form of C. tol). 2. Scales short and broad: C. lyson, sa7ic(i 

 Petri, and a new species from Singapore which greatly resembles C. alius of the western 

 coast of Central America. 



1 Dansk. Vid. Solsk. SkT., vol. 12, 1880, pp. 413-C13, pis. 1-5, translated in Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 5, 

 vol. 7, 1881, pp. 1-14, 107-123. 



