340 U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM BULLETIN 2 02 Vol. 2 



last dorsal spine; last anal ray without membrane attaching it to 

 caudal peduncle; pectoral fins reach to or nearly to anus; anal spines 

 of female small, the first completely embedded, the second small, those 

 of males distinct; first 5 or 6 anal rays of adult males a little swollen at 

 tips; posterior canines on lower jaw distinct; teeth fine, numerous, 

 movable, of equal size in both jaws; vomer with a row of small blunt 

 teeth; cephalic crest undeveloped. 



Color in alcohol. — ^Background coloration light brownish to whitish, 

 sides with small dark brown spots, usually characteristically somewhat 

 grouped to correspond with the 5 or 6 indistinct vertical bars; ven- 

 trally plain whitish to light brown, sometimes a few patches of tiny 

 pigment spots to correspond with the vertical bars; dorsal and caudal 

 fins barred with black spots; anal fin dusky distally, some dark spots 

 ventrally; pectoral and pelvic fins unspotted; the most characteristic 

 mark is an oblique black dash a little distance behind the eye; head 

 with brownish pigment and sometimes with numerous small white 

 spots; brown pigment below eye sometimes intensified and indicating 

 a short bar; no dark shoulder spot; underside of head with 3 pairs of 

 white streaks, the middle pair V-shaped. Peritoneum dusky dor- 

 sally, paler ventrally. 



Ecology. — This common reef species occupied the flat areas on the 

 reefs and was often taken in shallow tidal pools. 



Remarks. — Entomacrodus plurifilis is related to Salarias Jrenatus 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes, Salarias striatus Quoy and Gaimard, 

 Salarias arenatus Bleeker, but differs from them in having short cirri 

 on the outer edge of the orbital tentacle or in lacking the black spot 

 above axil of pectoral. Entomacrodus marmoratus (Bennett) of the 

 Hawaiian Islands dift'ers from j>lurifilis and the other three species in 

 having multicirrate nuchal dermal flaps. 



E. plurifilis is most closely related to E. niuafoouensis (Fowler), but 

 differs, as indicated in the key, mostly in lacking blackish spots on 

 sides and in lacking numerous narrow alternating vertical dark and 

 pale streaks on front of snout. We have ruled out the possibility that 

 plurifilis is the young stage of niuafoouensis on the grounds that 

 plurifilis is mature at smaller size and, in addition, the dark bars on 

 the caudal fin are narrower than the pale interspaces, whereas in 

 niuafoouensis they are as wide or wider. 



Named plurifilis in reference to the cirri on outer edge of orbital 

 tentacle . 



