32 



NOTE ON TRACHINOPS TAENIATUS. 

 Robert Hall. 



(Read April 1(>, 1011.) 



This perc'iforin fish ap|i;ireiitly has uot been recorded 

 from Tasmania, our specialist, Mr. R. M. Johnston, being 

 unfamiliar with it. 



Hitherto only two species have been described, one from 

 New Soutli AVales, the other tVom Victoria. 



The Tasmaniau form appears to agree with T. taejiiatns 

 of New South Wales. 



The ^ideographical distribution should be au interestinsf 

 one, judging iVom the fact that this conspicuous little form 

 is not contained in tlie collections of the Australian Museum. 

 Evidently it is local and uncommon. Although Boulenger 

 speaks of the four British Museum specimens of T. 

 taeniatns as having been found in New South Wales and 

 Australia, and of their reference to T. caudimaculaius as 

 being found on the Victorian coast. Their localities are more 

 likelj to agree with McCoy's Port Jackson for T. taeniatns, 

 and Port Phillip for T. caudimaculaius. MacLeay speaka 

 only of T. taeniatus and gives no exact habitat. No men- 

 tion is made of Tasmania. The s[>ecimeu referred to in this 

 note I found in August, 1909, among the piles in the old 

 pier adjacent to Argyle-street, Hobart. 



A shoal was observed bj Mr. A. Kirk opposite the 

 abattoirs, up the Derwent, during the spring of last y^ar. 

 I know of no other records, and it would be interesting ta 

 learn if it is found in the Kent and Flinders Groups. This 

 would indicate a broken or continuous distribution, and a 

 part of the fauna of the Bassian coast. If it were found on 

 King Island and not tn the Kent or Flinders Groups it 

 would appear as more properly belonging to the Eyrean 

 coast. This will depend on the specimens yet to be collected. 

 The Derwent fish has its middle caudal tin much produced, 

 the canines cons])icuous, and has the light longitudinal line 

 along the base of the di>r.«!al fin. Although neither of the 

 mainland species are here for reference, these characters are 

 inclined to weave them. It apjujars to be sluggish in habit 

 judging partly from the fact, that it remained among the 

 mussels of the pile until the pile was hauled up clear of the 

 water. 



McCoy, in his "Prodromus of the Zoology of Victoria," 

 figures very faithfully this fish, and 1 am indebted to Mr. H. 

 M. Nicholls for drawinu mv attention to it. 



