358 HOPLEGNATHIDiE. 



3. Hoplegnathus punctatus. 



Scaradon piinctatus, Temm. ?f Schleg. Fiiioi. Japon. Potss. p. 91. 

 Hoplegnatlius punctatus, Hicliards. Iclith. Chin. p. 247. 

 maculosus, Richards. I. c. 



"• IS- ^- 12- 



Body and the basal parts of the vertical fins with very distinct, 

 roimded, larger and smaller dark-brown spots, which sometimes have 

 a light centre. 



Seas of China and Japan. 



a. Half-grown : skin. China. Purchased of Mr. Warwick. 



We have now arrived at a series of families in which the charac- 

 ters of the Acanthopterygian fishes are not purely preserved, but 

 blended with othei's, by which a more or less close affinity to one of 

 the following orders is indicated. Several of these families approach 

 the Acanthopterous Pharyngognaths of MiiUer by the structure of 

 their teeth and of their fins, or by the interrupted lateral line. 

 Others are truly Malacopterygians with regard to the structure of 

 their dorsal fin ; whilst the position or the structure of the ventrals 

 does not allow of a separation fi-om the present order. Finally, the 

 Mastacemhelidce are Eels with a spinous dorsal fin ; and the Not- 

 acanthi are so aberrant a form, that they appear to be as distinct from 

 Acanthopterygians and Malacopterygians as those two orders are 

 from each other. 



We begin with those families which show some affinity to the 

 Pharyngognaths . 



