THE SHORE FISHES OF PERU 



23 



Body robust anteriorly, its depth at origin of dorsal 4.2 to 5.9; 

 head low, broad, heavy, its length to first gill slit 3.6 to 3.9 in length 

 anterior to base of caudal; snout short, rounded, 1.75 to 1.9 in head 

 to first gill slit; eye elongate, 6.4 to 7.6 in head, with a very heavy 

 bony ridge above; spiracle small, below and slightly posterior to eye; 

 mouth small, narrow, with thick labial lobes; teeth in anterior parts 

 of jaws with a long rather pointed central cusp and a much smaller 

 cusp on each side, the central cusps either broken or worn down in 

 the lower jaw in a large female; dermal denticles below base of first 

 dorsal more or less definitely -\ — shaped in two male specimens at 

 hand, less definitely so, with one bar of the plus often forked, in a 

 large female; first dorsal preceded by a very strong spine, about half 

 as high as the fin, origin somewhat behind inner angle of base of 

 pectoral, its height scarcely exceeding length of its base, its distal 

 margin slightly convex; predorsal length 2.1 to 2.25 in length to base 

 of caudal; distance between dorsal fins 4.1 to 4.3; second dorsal 

 scarcely smaller than the first, and similar to it in all respects, ending 



Figure 4. — Heterodontus quoyi (Freminville). From the type of Gyropleurodus peruanus 

 Evermann and Radcliffe, 565 mm. long, Lobes de Tierra Island, Peru (U.S.N.M. No, 

 77691). (After Evermann and Radcliffe, 1917.) 



about an eye's diameter in advance of origin of anal; caudal short, 

 the upper lobe not greatly exserted, exceeding length of lower lobe 

 by less than twice diameter of eye, its lower distal margin concave, 

 its length 3.4 to 3.75 in length anterior to its base; anal fin shorter 

 but higher than second dorsal, its base 3.75 to 4.25 in head; ventral 

 inserted somewhat nearer pectoral than anal, its outer margin 1.7 to 

 1.85 in head; clasper in adult males about three times as long as that 

 portion of fin next to it ; pectoral very large and heavy, inserted under 

 or somewhat in advance of third gill slit, 3.4 to 3.6 in length. 



General color gray above ("dirty brown" in life), pale underneath; 

 profusely spotted above and below with black spots variable in size, 

 generally smaller than the eye; back with suggestions of dark bars 

 in all three specimens at hand, agreeing in this respect with the type. 



