PHILIPPINE MACROUROID FISHES GILBERT AND HUBBS. 457 



The fin-rays in this species are longer in the male than in the 

 female. As usual in cases of sexual dimorphism, the exaggerated 

 character of the male is less marked in the young than in the adult. 

 The sexual dimorphism of the fin rays shown to occur in several 

 species with elongated dorsal spines (C. miiculatus, C. velifer, G. 

 seseradiatus, and .probably C. dorsal '-is) is good evidence of then- 

 close relationships. It was not noted in those related species in 

 which the dorsal spine is not produced, although there is a wide 

 individual variation in this regard among those species. 



The color is somewhat lighter than in C. maculatus, but of similai 

 pattern. The body is lighter below, but blackish on the belly. 

 The characteristic brownish black spot of this group of species, 

 located above and behind the pectoral fin, is large and round in 

 C . velifer; it includes the first row 6f scales above the lateral line, 

 and covers 8 or 9 rows counting downward and backward (restricted 

 to 7 or even 6 rows in some paratypes) ; this spot is ocellated by 

 a lighter band, which includes a whitish spot just below the front 

 end of the lateral line, and a whitish bar just behind the spot. 

 A less distinct spot, square in outline, is irregularly bounded by 

 lines joining the first dorsal spine, the origin of the lateral line 

 on each side, and the median occipital scute. The remainder of 

 the diagnostic color pattern is indistinct in the adult, but is well 

 marked in the young. A broad triangular dark area with its apex 

 ventral, and with its base along the posterior half of the first 

 dorsal fin and the whole interdorsal space, is rather indefinitely 

 ocellated below with a broad lighter band, which is followed by a 

 blotch darkest just above the lateral line. An oblique bar, directed 

 downward and backward to the anal base, and covering 6 to 8 

 scale rows, is located behind the head a distance nearly or quite 

 equal to the • length of the head. Similar but less distinct broad 

 bars cross the tail posteriorly. The sides of the abdomen and of 

 the head show silvery reflections. The upper part of the branch- 

 iostegal membranes are blackish, with the exception of the lighter 

 margin to the branchial cavity. The color of the head is light, 

 punctate below. The buccal and branchial cavities are lined with 

 bluish black everywhere except on their margins; the parietal 

 peritoneum is brownish black, underlain with silvery. The fins are 

 dusky, including the base of the first dorsal fin rays, which are 

 light in ma.culatus, but excluding the black filament of the dorsal 

 spine, the light second dorsal fin, and the white outer ventral ray. 

 The intensity of the color on the fins varies widely; the ventral 

 fin is usually blackish, but the entire outer ventral ray and the 

 tips of the other rays are whitish in the lightest specimens. 



