232 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



3.3 in head; snout 3.0; eye 4.5; interorbital 4.0; mouth somewhat 

 obUque; lower jaw projecting sHghtly; maxillary not quite reaching 

 front of eye, 2.9 in head; teeth in jaws small, upper with small weak 

 canines, none on lower jaw; vomer with a roughly diamond-shaped 

 patch of villiform teeth, somewhat prolonged behind, similar teeth on 

 palatines and tongue; margin of preopercle finely serrate, the serrae 

 at angle somewhat coarser, the margin slightly indented above angle; 

 longest gill rakers half length of eye, 10 on lower limb of first arch; 

 rows of scales below lateral line rouglily parallel with it, those above 

 lateral line in very oblique series; dorsal (according to the figure) 

 scarcely indented, longest spine 2.9 in head; caudal lunate, lobes 

 pointed, the upper a little the longer; second anal spine a little 

 shorter but stronger than the third, 4.5 in head; ventral (according 

 to figure) inserted a little behind base of pectoral, 1.8 in head; pectoral 

 (accordmg to the figure) pointed, reaching origin of anal, 1.3 in head. 



Color pale brown, darker above; middle rays of caudal narrowly 

 tipped with black; a dusky spot in axil of pectoral. Color in life red. 

 (After Nichols and Murphy.) 



Although it is stated in the original account that this snapper 

 "evidently is a food fish of considerable importance, for the Indians 

 from whom the specimen was obtained at Lobos de Tierra had already 

 salted several hundred of the same kind," it was not taken by E,. E. 

 Coker or by the Mission. It remains known only from the type, a 

 specimen 280 mm. long to the base of the caudal, which I have not 

 seen. 



Range. — Known only from Lobos de Tierra Island, Peru. 



Genus XENICHTHYS Gill, 1863 



Body elongate, compressed; head more or less compressed, pointed; 

 eyes large; mouth moderate, oblique; lower jaw projecting; teeth 

 minute, in a narrow band on each jaw and on vomer, none on palatines 

 and tongue; margin of preopercle entire; giU rakers slender; scales 

 small, mostly ctenoid; dorsal fins nearly or quite separate, with 12 

 slender spines and about 17 or 18 soft rays; caudal with a shallow 

 fork; anal with three small graduated spmes, the soft part similar to 

 that of dorsal, and with about an equal number of rays. 



Jordan (1923, p. 195) erected the family Xenichthyidae to receive 

 this genus and two related ones, Xenistius and Xenocys. The very 

 obhque mouth, projecting lower jaw, the absence of teeth on the 

 palatines and tongue, the entire preopercular margins, and the many 

 rays in the soft dorsal and anal do set these genera apart, but the 

 writer prefers to classify them with the Lutianidae for the present. 

 Regan (1929) placed these genera among the Pomadasidae. 



