I02 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



Aphredoderus LeSueur. With the characters of the family: 

 7 species. 



A. sayanus (Gilhams). Pirate perch (Fig. 48). Length 190 mm.; 

 head 3; depth 3.3; color dark olive, speckled with dark dots; 2 dark 

 bars at the base of the tail fin; rays of dorsal fin III to IV, 10 to 11; 

 anal II, 6; scales 9 to 13-45 to 60-12 to 14: Long Island to Texas; up 

 the Mississippi Valley to Minnesota and eastward to Lake Erie; 

 common. 



Order 10. Synentognathi. — Garpike. Soft-rayed fishes with 

 unmodified anterior vertebrae; air bladder without pneumatic duct in the 

 adult; no pyloric caeca; fins without spines; ventral fins abdominal; no 

 adipose fin; lower pharyngeal bones fully united: 4 families of marine 

 fishes, one species of which enters the rivers along the Atlantic coast. 



Fig. 48. — Aphredoderus sayanus {from Fishes of Illinois). 



Family Belonidae. — Body very elongate and slender, covered with 

 small scales; lateral line very low, running along the side of the belly; 

 jaws elongated to form a beak, each jaw with a band of sharp teeth; 

 about 50 species of voracious, carnivorous fishes. 



Strongylura Van Hasselt. With the characters of the family; 

 no vomerine teeth; tail fin unequally forked: many species, mostly 

 American. 



5. marina (Walbaum). Garfish; billfish. Length 1,200 mm.; 

 head 2.8; depth 5.5; color greenish; sides silvery, with a narrow silvery 

 lateral stripe; a dark bar on the front of the opercle; rays of dorsal fin 

 15; anal 17; scales 300, 240 before the dorsal fin; body slender, 

 cylindrical: marine, along the Atlantic coast from Cape Cod to 

 Texas, ascending the rivers and often breeding in fresh water; very 

 common. 



Order 11. Thoracostei. — Gills normal (in G aster osteida), but 

 with the pharyngeals reduced in number; dorsal spines few or wanting; 

 ventrals reduced or wanting; body more or less protected by bony 

 plates; upper jaw formed by the premaxillaries: 5 families of mostly 

 marine fishes, i family with fresh water representatives. 



