ICHTHYOLOGY OF VENEZUELA — SCHULTZ 117 



U.S.N.M. No. 121727, 17 specimens, 53 to 70 mm., Lago de Maracaibo, oppo- 

 site Salina Rica, 5 km. north of Maracaibo, February 20, 1942. 



U.S.N.M. No. 121729, a specimen, 138 mm., Lago de Maracaibo, 7 km. south 

 of Maracaibo, March 6, 1942. 



U.S.N.M. No. 121730, 2 specimens, 137 and 150 mm., Salina Rica, 5 km. north 

 of Maracaibo, Februarj' 20, 1942. 



U.S.N.M. No. 121731, 3 specimens, 84 to 147 mm., mouth of Cano de Sagua, 

 25 km. north of Sinamaica, March 12, 1942. 



One specimen, 74 mm., Laguna de Tacarigua, Estado de Miranda, F. F. Bond, 

 February 3, 1939. 



Family SERRANIDAE: Sea Basses 



This family is so poorly represented from Venezuela that it is not 

 practicable to make a key. Instead, the reader is referred to volume 

 2, pp. 435-436, of Meek and Hildebrand's "The Marine Fishes of 

 Panama" for a key to the genera of Serranidae likely to occur in 

 Venezuela. 



Genus PARALABRAX Girard 



Paralabrax Girard, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 8, p. 131, 1856. 

 (Genotype, Labrax nebulifer Girard.) 



PAEALABRAX DEWEGEKI (Metzelaar) 



Serranus (Paralabrax) dewegeri Metzelaar, Report on the fishes collected by 

 Dr. J. Boeke in the Dutch V/est Indies, 1904-1905, p. 52, fig. 20, 1919 (Guanta, 

 Venezuela) . 



U.S.N.M. No. 123134, a specimen, 127.5 mm. in standard length, from south 

 coast of Gulf, U. S. S. Niagara, November 7, 1924, 



As this species has never been recognized since its original discovery 

 and probably the specimen before me is only the third one collected 

 and made known, I am giving the following rather full diagnosis and 

 a comparison with other species closely related to it: 



The following measurements, expressed in hundredths of the 

 standard length, were made: Greatest depth of body 35.5; length of 

 head 43.9; length of snout 12.5; least width of bony interorbital space 

 4.97; diameter of eye 8.78; postorbital length of head 23.1 ; least width 

 of preorbital space 4.31; distance from tip of snout to rear edge of 

 maxillaries 19.0; length of longest gill rakers 3.37; length of caudal 

 peduncle or from rear base of last anal ray to midbase of caudal fin 

 21.4; least depth of caudal peduncle 14.3; length of pelvic spine 11.4; 

 length of spines of dorsal fin — first 5.49, second 10.1, third 18.3, fourth 

 19.5, fifth 14.9, sixth 12.8, seventh 12.4, eighth 11.4, ninth 11.2, tenth 

 13.7; length of anal spines — first 6.20, second 11.8, third 11.9; longest 

 soft ray of dorsal fin 17.9; of anal fin 19.6; of pectoral fin 23.0; of pelvic 

 fin 20.4; longest ray of caudal fm 24.8; distance from tip of snout to 

 origin of dorsal fin 42.6, and to origin of anal fin 63.0; snout tip to 

 pectoral fin insertion 35.5 and to pelvic insertion 37.4. 



