NO. 1484. JAPANESE FLO UNDERS AND SOLES— JORDAN & STARKS. 221 



widel}^ 'it irreoular intervals, and when separated the interval i.s filled 

 b}' a dermal channel. One or two plates on base of pectoral and often 

 one or two a short distance below and behind base. A few plates on 

 each edge of caudal peduncle. Plates irregularly scattered over oper- 

 cle and preopercle, an area just behind eyes, and sometimes on inter- 

 orbital space, covered by thin skin, and apparently the roughened 

 bones of the cranium. The skin otherwise smooth and naked. 



Specimens up to {) cm. in length are entirely smooth. In specimens 

 from 10 to 12 cm. long the ridge running back from the interorbital 

 space is becoming rough. Specimens from 11 to 16 cm. long have the 

 row of rough plates on the back well developed, but not so conspicu- 

 ous as in the adult; the row on lower part of sides and the rows 

 along lateral line appearing. In one specimen 22 cm. long the ventral 

 and lateral series have not developed. Apparently the last plates to 

 appear are those on base of pectoral and on preopercle, though occa- 

 sionall}' they are slightly developed in specimens 15 cm. long. Ail of 

 the plates become more elevated and rougher with age. 



Color uniform, brown or drab, often irregularly flecked with dark 

 spots on the tins and body. These more conspicuous, and probably 

 alwaj's present in the young. Usually a row of round white spots, set 

 at rather wide intervals, follows the dorsal and ventral outlines of the 

 Itod}'^ at a short distance from the base of the tins, and often other 

 light spots are scattered irregularl}^ over the body. 



Specimens from Tokj^o, Otaru, Aomori, Hakodate, Same, Matsu- 

 shima, and Mororan, and the largest 27 cm. in length. The species is 

 generally common in northern Japan and in northern China. 



{Jns, two; coloratus^ colored.) 



27. CLIDODERMA Bleeker. 

 Clidoderma Bleeker, Comptes Rendus, Amsterd., XIII, 1862 {asperrima). 



This genus is allied to Pleuronectes. Its principal character is the 

 presence in the adult of many warty tubercles, the largest arranged in 

 about 6 longitudinal rows. The very young are naked; the very old, 

 almost evenly warty. The body is l)roader than in most related 

 genera. 



(/cA.f/s-, key; Sep/xa^ skin). 



43. CLIDODERMA ASPERRIMUM (Schlegel). 



Plater ra aspernma ScKLEGKh, Fauna Japan, Paris, 1846, p. 172 (Nagasaki). 

 Pleuronectes asperrimus Gunther, Cat. Fish, IV, 1862, p. 453 (copied)— Namiye. 



Class. Cat., 1881, p. 110 (Tokyo).— Otaki, Jonrn. Fish. Bur., 1897, p. 7, pi. 



vm, fig. 8 (Tokyo). 

 Clidoderma asperrvnum Jordan and Snyder, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXIII, 1900, 



p. 379 (Tokyo).— JoKDAN and Starks, Bull. U. S. Fish Com.. XXII, 1904, 



p. 625 (Matsushima Bay). 



HaUtat.— Coasts of Japan, chiefly northward. 



