FISHES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS AND ADJACENT SEAS 271 



Maldives, India, Ceylon, Andamans, East Indies, Philippines, RiuKiu, 

 China, Japan, East Australia, Queensland, Melanesia, Micronesia, 

 Polynesia. One of the most abundant as well as handsome of the 



Figure 16.— Serranus merra (Bloch), variation 



groupers of the Indo-Pacific. Boulenger gives the maximum size as 

 320 mm. but all our examples much smaller. It is often quite vari- 

 able and we have listed some examples under the variety steJlans, 



