32 



■• Synopsis of the Indian genera of the family Berycidse. 



I. No barbels : eight brancliiostegals : — 



1. Scales bony, forming a bony mail: ventrals consisting of a huge 



spine and 2 or 3 almost rudimentary rays ... ... Monocentris. 



2. Scales ctenoid : anal spines 3 or 4 : — 



i. One dorsal: abdomen serrated: 6 soft rays in the ven- 

 trals : 



a. No teeth in the vomer ... ... ... Hoplostethus. 



I. Vomerine teeth ... ... .•• Trachichthys. 



ii. Two dorsals : abdomen not serrated : 7 soft rays in the ven- 

 trals : — 



a. No preopercular spine ... ... ... Myripristis. 



b. A preopercular spine ... ... ... Koloeentrum. 



3. Scales cycloid : anal spines feeble and few (1 or 2) ... Melamphaes. 

 II. Two barbels : four branchiostegala ... ... ... Poltmixia. 



MoNOCENTEis, Bl. Schn., Cuv. & Val. 



Monocentris Cuv. & Val., Hiat. Nat. Poissons, IT. p. 461 : Giintlier, Cat. Fishes. I. p. 8 (uhi synon.). 



Body deep, compressed, covered with a mail of large irregular bony scales : 

 those in the middle line of the belly are large and strongly keeled. 



Head large, the superficial ]:)ones, with the exception of the operculum, are 

 sculptured to form wide deep muciferous cavities which are covered by spongy 

 skin. Eye large. Snout blunt, rounded, overhanging the mouth. Mouth 

 inferior, laro-e, its cleft little oblique. Villiform teeth on jaws and palatines 

 only. 



Bio-ht brancliiostegals : large pseudobranchife : no large projecting spine at 

 the angle of the preoperculum. 



Two dorsal fins, the first consisting of a few large coarse isolated spines. 

 Caudal emarginate but not deeply forked. Ventrals consisting of a huge spine 

 and two or three small rays. 



An air-bladder : a few large pyloric C£eca. 



17. 3Iouocentris jajtoniciis (Houtt.), Cuv. & Val. 



Monocentris japonicus, Cav. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss. IV. 461, pi. xcvii. : Temm. & Sclileg. Fann. Japon., Poiss. 

 p. 50, pi. xxii. fig. 1 : Giintlier Catalogue of Fishes, vol. I. p. 9 : Bleeker, Atlas lohtbyol. Vol. VIII. pi. ccclvi. 



fig. 4. 



See also Castelnau, P. L. S. New South Wales, vol. III. 1878, p. 365 : Hilgendorf, SB. Ges. nat. Frennde, 

 Berlin. 1879, p. 22: Macleay, P. L. S. N. S. Wales, vol. V. 1880-81, p. 510: Steindachner and Doderlein, Denk. 

 Ak. Wien, LXVII. 1883, p. 217 ; Nystrom, Bihang Svensk. Vet.-Akad. Handl. XIII. iv. no. 4, 1887, p. 4. 



B. 8. D. VI. 11. A. 10. P. 13 or 14. V. I. 2 or 3. L. lat. 16. 



Height of the body nearly half the total length with the caudal, length of 

 the head nearly half the total without the caudal. 



