MALACANTHID^. 359 



Fam. 32. MALACANTHID^. 



Labroidei, part., Cuv. R^ffne Anim. 



Scisenoidei, part., Miill. Berl. Ahhandl. 1844, p. 167. 



Bodj^ elongate, covered with very small scales ; head labroid (with 

 thick Ups, and with a posterior intermaxillary canine tooth). Dorsal 

 and anal fins very long, the former with a few unarticiilated rays 

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

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

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

 branchiaj ; branchiostegals five or six ; air-bladder simple ; pyloric 

 appendages none. Vertebrae 10/14. 



Seas between the tropics. 



Only one genus. 



1. MALACANTHUS. 



Malacanthus, Cuv. Ri-gne Anim, ; Cuv. ^' Val. xiii. p. 316. 



Body elongate, slightly compressed ; cleft of the mouth horizontal, 

 with the jaws equal ; eye lateral. Scales vei7 small, minutely 

 ciliated. One continuous dorsal, with the first four or six rays not 

 articulated ; dorsal and anal verj' long ; the lower pectoral rays 

 branched. Villiform teeth in both the jaws, wath canines 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 

 with a spine, prteoperculum entire. 



Atlantic coasts of Tropical America ; Mauritius ; Western Pacific. 



1. Malacanthus plumieri. 



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



Coryphaena plumieri, Block, taf. 175 (very bad). 



Sparus oblongus, Bl. Schn. p. 283. 



Malacanthus pliunieri, Cuv. <^ Val. xiii. p. 319. pi. 380; Casteln. Anim. 



nouv. du rares de FAmer. Slid, Poiss. p. 29. 

 trachinus, Valenc. in Cuv. Regne Anim. III. Poiss. pi. 90. fig. 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 Collection of the Zoological Society. 



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



c, dy e. Adult and half-grown : skins and stuffed. Jamaica. From 



Dr. Parnell's Collection. 

 f. Adult : stuffed. West Indies. 



