FISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND ADJACENT SEAS 519 



pterygoids, and tongue. Gill rakers rather long. Gill membranes 

 free, separated. Pseudobranchiae present or absent. Branchioste- 

 gals numerous, over 20, Air bladder large. Scales cycloid. Belly 

 without keels or scutes. Head naked, with collar of large thin scales 

 around occiput. Paired fins with long, scaly axillary flaps. Lateral 

 line straight, with simple or branched tubes. Dorsal slightly behind 

 ventral origin. Anal far behind dorsal. Caudal forked. Pectorals 

 low, fold like ventrals. Ventral rays 10 to 16. 



Widely distributed in tropical and subtropical seas, sometimes 

 entering fresh water. Genera few. Though of large or moderate 

 size not valued as food, as the rank flesh is full of numerous small 

 bones. The young pass through a metamorphosis, like the 

 Leptocephulus stage of the eels, though easily known by their forked 

 tails. 



ANALYSIS OF GENERA 



a\ Body deep, oblong; scales large; last dorsal ray ends in filament— Megalops 

 n'. Body slenderer ; scales small ; fins without filaments Elops 



Genus MEGALOPS Lacepede 



Megalops Lac£pI:de, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. 5, p. 289, 1803. (Type, Megalops 

 filamentosus Lacepede = C7!/pea cuprinoides Broussonet, monotypic.) (Pre- 

 cludes Megalops Leach 1814, Rafinesque 1815, Dejean 1833, Erichson 1840, 

 Hallowell 1860.) 



Brisbania Castelnau, Proc. Linn. Soc. New South Wales, vol. 2, p. 241, 1878. 

 (Type, Brisbania staigeri Castelnau, monotypic.) 



Tarpon Jordan and Evermann, U. S. Nat. Mus. Bull. 47, pt. 1, 1896, p. 409. 

 (Type, Megalops atlanticus Valenciennes, monotypic.) 



Body oblong, elongate, well compressed. Eyes large, with adipose 

 lids. Mouth very large, oblique, reaches behind eye. Teeth in jaws, 

 on vomer, palatines, pterygoids and tongue villifonn. Gill rakers 

 lanceolate. Pseudobranchiae absent. Branchiostegals 23 to 27. 

 Scales large, tough, silvery. Anal without basal scaly sheath, 

 though basally with smaller scales. Lateral line with branched tubes. 

 Dorsal inserted little or well behind ventrals, little shorter than anal, 

 last ray greatly elongated. Ventral rays 10 or 11. 



Tropical seas, entering rivers. The young pass through a long 

 ribbonlike transparent larval stage. 



MEGALOPS CYPRINOIDES (Broussonet) 



Clupea cyprinoides Broussonet, Ichth., no pagination, pi. 9, 1782 (type locality: 

 Oceans between the Tropics [not Jamaica and Antigua or Rio Janeiro, 

 Brazil] ; Tanna Island, South Pacific). — Bonnaterre, Tabl. encyl. Ichth., 

 p. 187, pi. 75, fig. 314, 1788 (Pacific Ocean).— Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Linn., vol. 

 1, p. 1407, 1789 (copied).— Walbaum, Artedi Pise, vol. 3, p. 40, 1792 

 (copied). — Bloch, Naturg. ausland. Fische, vol. 9, p. 32, pi. 403, 1795 

 (Pacific Ocean, Tanna ) .—Schneider, Syst. Ichth. Bloch, p. 427, 1801 (Tran- 



156861—41 34 



