382 RECORDS OF IHE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



tetricus. Guntber (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.) regarded large speci- 

 mens from Port Jackson which bad the characteristic marking 

 of nigromarginatus as merely colour varieties of gymnogenis. 

 Finally, as small specimens of the nigromarginatus form are 

 unknown, and as the essential structural details of the two are 

 similar, I regard them as identical. 



Tbe following are the principal characters of the two forms : — 



P. gymnogenis. Cheek scales in a single series. Body scabs 

 extending on to the extreme bases of tbe dorsal and anal fins. 

 Candid truncate, very slightly rounded in small specimens, the 

 lobes sometimes a little produced in older ones. Greenish or 

 reddish, with more or less distinct large white spots on the 

 scales, which are sometimes wanting. Usually some brownish 

 spots and lines radiate from the eye. Pectoral with a dark 

 basal bar. Dorsal and anal usually with a median dark band, 

 and spotted, a violet submarginal band ; the membrane between 

 the anterior dorsal spines darker. Caudal with dark upper and 

 lower margins. 



Tbe specimen recorded from China by Steindachner " ; s not 

 this species according to Klunzinger. I have already 8 given 

 my reasons for considering the specimen recorded by Castelnau 

 from Port Jackson as Labrichthys parila to be not that species 

 but /'. gymnogenis. 



Specimens examined. — Five from near Sydney, and one from 

 Lord Howe Island. The largesl is -')(_> mm. long. 



//"//. — Botany Bay, New South Wales, northwards to 

 Moolpolah, near Moreton Bay, Queensland; Lord Howe 

 Island; King George Sound (Klunzinger). 



P. nigromanjiintl us. — Cheek scales in a single series. Bases 

 of the dorsal and anal not scaly. Caudal truncate, the angles 

 somewhat produced. Purple or purplish green, yellowish 

 posteriorly; a broad crimson band between the sofl dorsal and 

 anal tins. Dorsal and anal yellow or Crimson with narrow 

 purple margins. Median rays of ventrals blackish. Pectoral 

 yellow with a purple blotch posteriorly, and a dark basal hand. 

 Caudal orange with dark upper and lower margins. 



Steindachner Sitzb Akad. Wisa. Wieu, Ivi., 1867, p 342. 

 McOulloch— Kec. W. Austr. .Mus., i.. L912, p. 91. 



