172 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 Genus EPINEPHELUS Bloch, 1793 



Body elongate, moderately compressed; head fairly large, pointed; 

 mouth large; maxillary with a well-developed supplemental bone; 

 teeth in jaws in bands, one or both jaws anteriorly with one or more 

 fixed canines, inner teeth depressible, teeth also present on vomer and 

 palatines; preopercle with serrate vertical limb; its horizontal limb 

 smooth; gill rakers short, few or moderate in number; scales small, 

 ctenoid; dorsal with 11, or occasionally 10, moderately short stiff 

 spines; caudal round to slightly emarginate; anal with 3 spines and 

 7 to 9 soft rays; ventrals inserted shortly behind base of pectorals. 



A single species is known from Peru. 



EPINEPHELUS LABRIFORMIS (Jenyns) 



Mttriqtje 



Serranus labriformis Jentns, 1842, p. 8, pi. 3, Galdpagos Islands (original de- 

 scription). — ToRTONESE, 1939b, p. 290, Callao, Peru (notes). 



Epinepheles labriformis Evermann and Radcliffe, 1917, p. 69, Lobos de Afuera, 

 Peru (synonymy; description).— Meek and Hildebrand, 1925, p. 459, 

 Panama Bay (synonymy; description; range). 



Head 2.6; depth 2.8; D. XI, 16; A. Ill, 8; P. 18; scales about 13-105 

 (too small anteriorly to be accurately enumerated). 



Body compressed, its greatest thickness little more than half the 

 depth; back rather high; profile anteriorly gently convex; caudal 

 peduncle quite compressed, 3.4 in head; snout pointed, 4.5; eye 5.8; 

 interorbital 8.5; mouth large, oblique; lower jaw strongly projecting, 

 its tip in line with dorsal profile; maxillary reaching below posterior 

 margin of eye, 2.15 in head; teeth in jaws in bands, one on each side 

 in anterior part of each jaw enlarged, caninelike; very small teeth 

 on vomer and palatines, vertical margin of preopercle finely serrate, 

 the horizontal margin smooth; gill rakers short, those on upper limb 

 nearly all spiny rudunents, none longer than pupil, 16 more or less 

 developed on lower and 8 on the upper limb of first arch; scales small, 

 ctenoid, reduced and more or less embedded on head; dorsal not 

 definitely notched, the spines increasing in length from the first to 

 the fourth, then decreasing very gradually, the longest somewhat 

 longer than the longest soft ray, 2.2 in head; caudal round; anal spines 

 rather strong, the second stronger though not longer than the third, 

 about two-thirds length of longest soft ray, 3.1 in head; ventrals 

 inserted behind base of pectoral, with a rather slender spine, 3.4 in 

 head; pectoral rather large, reaching tip of ventral, with round margin, 

 the longest rays above middle of fin, 1.5 in head, 4.8 in length. 



Color dark brown; a black saddle on caudal peduncle; vertical fins 

 rather darker brown than adjacent parts of body, each with a narrow 

 pale margin; ventrals nearly black; pectoral dark brown at base, 

 distal third paler. Only suggestions of pale spots are present on the 



