MALACANXHID^. 359 



Fam. 32. MALACANTHIDyE. 



Labroidei, part., Cm: ICegne Anim. 

 Sciasnoidei, part, Mull. Berl. Ahhandl. 1844, p. 167. 

 Body elongate, covered with very smaU scales ; head labroid (with 

 thick hps, and with a postenor intermaxillary canine tooth). Dorsal 



alrTol ^7 /'°1' *^'- ^'^™^^' ^^^^ ^ ^^^ unarticiUated rays 

 anteriorly; ventrals thoracic, with one spine and five rays No 

 pronnnent anal papilla. Gill-opening wide, with the gill-membranes 

 united below the throat ; gills four, a sht behind the fourth ; pseudo 

 branchia,; branchiostegals five or six ; aii'-bladder simple /pXric 

 appendages none. Vertebraj 10/14. pyioiio 



Seas between the tropics. 



Only one genus. 



1. MALACANTHUS. 



Malacanthus, Cm: Regne Anim. ; Cw. ^- Val. xiii. p. 316. 



Body elongate, slightly compressed ; cleft of the mouth horizontal 

 with the jaws eqiial; eye lateral. Scales very small, minutely 

 cihated One contmuous dorsal, >vith the first four or sLx rays not 

 articiilated; dorsal and anal very long; the lower pectora rays 

 branched. Vilhform teeth in both the jaws, with caJiines and an 

 outer series of stronger teeth, and with a canine at the posterior ex- 

 tremity of the intermaxillary; no teeth on the palate. Operculum 

 witJi a spine, prseoperculum entire. 



Atlantic coasts of Tropical America; Mauritius ; Western Pacific. 



^l. Malacanthus plumieri. 

 Parra, p. 22. pi. 13. f. 1. 



Cor\T5hpena plumieri, Bloch, taf. 175 (very bad) 

 Sparus oblongus, Bl. Schn. p. 283. 

 Malacanthus plumieri, Cm. ^ Val. xiii. p. 319. pi. 380; Casteln Anim 



nom: ou rares de rAmer. Sud, Poiss. p. 29. 

 trachinus, ValeM. in Cm. Regne Anim. III. Poiss. pi. 90. fio-. 3. 



B. 6. D. |- A. 51-53. Vert. 10/14. 



The height of the body is contained eight times and a half in the 

 total length ; the lobes of the caudal elongate, and sometimes pro- 

 duced into a filament. 



Atlantic coasts of Tropical America. 



a Adult. Cuba. From the CoUection of the Zoological Society. 



b. Adult. West Indies. Purchased of Mr. Scrivener. 



f, d, e Adult and half-grown : skins and stufled. Jamaica. From 



Dr. Parnell's Collection. 

 /. Adult : stuffed. AVcst Indies. 



