ART. 33. NOTES ON FISHES OF HAWAII E. K, JORDAN 23 



propoma) the two limbs of the preopercle are ahnost scaleless, 

 hardly justifies the separation of the group into two genera. 



LEPIDAPOLIS ATRORUBENS E. K. Jordan, new species. 



Plate 1, fig. 3 



Head 3.1 in length; depth 3; snout 2.9 in head; eye 6.7 ; interorbital 

 3.4; D. XII, 11; A. Ill, 12; scales 7-31-13. 



Body oblong, stout, not greatly compressed; head longer than 

 deep, upper and lower profiles only weakly convex, almost similar; 

 snout rather long, pointed; jaws pointed, about equal; mouth large; 

 teeth strong, conic; 4 large canines on front of each jaw, and a 

 strong posterior canine tooth; lips fleshy; eye rather large, its pos- 

 terior margin slightly anterior to middle of length of head; pos- 

 terior margin of preopercle very finely serrate; interorbital fairly 

 broad, convex ; nostrils in front of eye, the anterior smaller, and in a 

 very short fleshy tube ; last dorsal spine 4.8 in head ; seventh dorsal 

 ray 2.8 ; third anal spine 4 ; caudal deeply lunate, the outer rays pro- 

 duced and about one and two-thirds length of the inner, their total 

 length about 1.3 in head; base of caudal broad, about 2 in head; 

 pectoral rather small, about 1.7 in head; ventrals long, pointed, the 

 first few rays greatly produced, their length about 1.2 in head; 

 scales large, thin, flexible, small upon back in front of dorsal fin and 

 along base of dorsal and anal ; scales smaller on chest than on rest of 

 body ; no scales in front of eye, the interorbital wholly bare, part of 

 head posterior to middle of eye otherwise largely covered with small 

 scales; lateral line nearly concurrent with dorsal profile, uninter- 

 rupted, the pores distinct and rather complexly branched. 



Color in life somewhat variable. One specimen, the type, had the 

 body a deep wine red, irregularly blotched with very dark brown, 

 approaching black, more dark dorsally than on belly, these blotches 

 arranged in no regular pattern and not corresponding on the oppo- 

 site sides of the fish ; upper part of the body faintly striped longi- 

 tudinally with lighter and darker, these stripes corresponding to the 

 rows of scales and much more prominent on the darker areas, being 

 formed by a longitudinally oblong light patch on the center of each 

 scale; head reddish brown, lighter and more red in places, darker 

 and browner in others, two diffuse longitudinal streaks running back 

 from eye to edge of opercle, the upper meeting end of lateral line, 

 the chin practically black, with irregular dark red spots; dorsal 

 almost wholly dark or nearly black, a very black spot between the 

 second and third spines; a large, vague black blotch below last rays 

 of dorsal, anal very dark, margined with black; pectoral brown, 

 darker near the base, the axil of pectoral orange ; ventrals and caudal 

 black. 



