88. SPARID^ — PIMELEPTERUS. 561 



obtusely lanceolate incisors, implanted witli compressed usually conspic- 

 uous roots posteriorly ; behind these a narrow band of villiform teeth : fine 

 teeth on vomer, palatines, and tongue. Branchiostegals 7 ; gill-rakers 

 long. Preopercle obsoletely serrate; preorbital narrow, covering but 

 little of the maxillary. Squamation very comi^lete, the space between 

 and about the eyes being the only naked part ; scales smallish, thick, 

 ctenoid, 00-70 in the lateral line, which is continuous; similar scales 

 entirely covering the soft parts of the vertical fins, and extending up 

 on the paired fins. Dorsal fin low, with about 11 spines, which are depres- 

 sible in a groove of scales; the fin continuous, but the last spines 

 low, so that a depression occurs between the two i>arts of the fin; the 

 bases of the spinous and soft parts about equal; anal similar to soft 

 dorsal, with 3 spines; caudal fin forked; pectoral fins small ; ventrals 

 well behind them. Intestinal canal long. Pyloric coeca usually very 

 numerous. Species numerous, in all warm seas. Herbivorous, (Trj/jte-^Tj?, 

 fat; Tzrepu'^^ fin.) 



a. Soft dorsal and anal not elevated, the latter rather short. {Pimeleptcrus.) 



8§'y. P. bosci Lac. 



Dusky, with series of light stripes, about 25 in number, following the 

 rows of scales; the middle part of each scale pale, the edge dusky; 

 the stripes along middle of body much broader than the others, the 

 scales along the back and belly being much smaller ; a silvery streak 

 along the preorbital. Body ovate, somewhat compressed. Longest dor- 

 sal spine one-fifth the height of the body, rather higher than the soft 

 dorsal and nearly equal to the longest ray of the anal. Horizontal pro- 

 cess of the teeth not much longer than the vertical. Interorbital space 

 2.J in head ; top and sides of head finely scaled ; interorbital region 

 gibbous, below which point the snout is truncate ; preopercle weakly- 

 serrulate ; gill-rakers long. Soft dorsal and anal very low ; median dorsal 

 spines highest; second anal spine highest; caudal well forked, fke low-er 

 lobe longest. Head 4]-; depth 2^. D. XII, 12; A. HI, 11 ; scales 10- 

 66-20; vertebrae 9 -f- 16. Massachusetts to Panama; common southward. 



(? Perca sectairix L. Syst. N.it. : Pimelepterus iosci Laedpfedc, Hist. Nat. Poiss. iv, 429, 

 1802: P. iosci Cuv. & Val. vii, 258: P. bosci Giinther, i, 497 : PimeJej\lcr,iis flavalineatm 

 Poey, Repert. i, 319; Poey, Synopsis Pise. Cubens. 324, 18G8.) 



Bull. Nat. Mus. No. 10 36 



