288 BULLETIN 10 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



Family SIGANIDAE 



Body oblong or ellipsoid and compressed. Caudal peduncle 

 unarmed. Mouth small. Teeth uniserial, trenchant, serrated incisors. 

 Palate edentulous. Gill membranes not united, attached to isthmus. 

 Pseudobranchiae well developed. Branchiostegals 5. Air vessel 

 large, forked before and behind. Intestine with round convolution. 

 Pyloric coeca 5 or 6. Vertebrae 23, of which 13 caudal. Scales very 

 small, cycloid. Lateral line complete. Dorsal single, very strong 

 spines 13, rays 10. Anal with 7 well-developed spines, rays 9. Caudal 

 cuneate. Ventrals thoracic, with an outer and inner spine and 3 soft 

 rays between. 



Indo-Pacific. Herbivorous. A single genus. Easily distinguished 

 from all the other fishes of the series here studied by the increased 

 anal and ventral spines. 



Genus SIGANUS Forskal 



Siganus ForskAl, Descript. Animal., 1775, pp. x, 25. Type Scarus rivulatus 

 Forskal = »S'carw.s siganus Forskal, alternate name, tautotj^pic. 



Centrogaster Houttuyn, Verb. Holland. Maatsch. Haarlem, vol. 20, 1782, 

 p. 333. Type Centrogaster fuscescens Houttuyn, designated by Jordan 

 and EvERMANN, Genera of Fishes, vol. 1, 1917, p. 44. 



Amphacanthus Schneider, Syst. Ichth. Bloch, 1801, p. 206. Type Ajnpha- 

 canthus guttatus (part) ScuNEiT)'Eii=Tevthis javus Linnaeus, latter desig- 

 nated by Desmarest, Encycl. Hist. Nat. Rept. Poiss., Chenu, 1874, p. 240. 



Amphacantus Cuvier, Regne Animal, vol. 2, 1817, p. 330. Type Teuthis javus 

 Linnaeus. 



Buro (Conimerson) Lacepede, Hist. Mat. Poiss., vol. 5, 1803, p. 421. Type 

 Buro hrunneus Lac6pede, monotypic. 



Buronus Rafinesque, Analyse de la Nature, 181-5, p. 88. Type Buro hrun- 

 neus Lacepede, virtual!,v (as Buronus Rafinesque proposed to replac-:^ 

 Buro LacepJide). 



Amphiscarus Swainson, Nat. Hist. Animals, vol. 2, 1839, p. (172) 227. Type 

 Siganus fuscus Griffith, monotypic. 



Siganites Fowler, Joiirn. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 12, ser. 2, 1904, 

 p. 546. Type Chaetodon canaliculatus Mungo Park, orthotypic. 



Lo Seale, Occas. Papers Bishop Mus., vol. 4, No. 1, 1938, p. 71. Type 

 Amphacanthus vulpinus Schlegel, monotypic. 



Characters of the genus in that of the famil3^ 



We liavo admitted the arrangement of species grouped primarily 

 on color pattern, following Giinther, as we believe this more closely 

 expresses phylogeny than structural characters. 



ANALYSIS OF THE SPECIES 



I. Siganus. Snout not produced or muzzle not protruded. 

 a>. Ground color darker than markings which form whitish golden or bluish 

 spots or vermiculated lines. 

 6'. Depth 1% to 2K- 



c^ Caudal slightly or moderately eniarginate. 



