SYSTEMATIC CATALOGUE OF FISHES. 



345 



i. Shell or carapace with a large spine at end of each ventral ridge; carapace deficient behind 

 dorsal fin; color olive gray, nearly every plate with a small pale blue spot at its center. 



trigonus. 



a. Shell or carapace without spines; carapace continuous behind dorsal fin; color dark brown, 

 with numerous small, circular, yellow-white spots triqueler. 



(Lactophrys, milk-cow eyebrow, in allusion to the horns in one species.) 



297. LACTOPHRYS TRIGONUS (Linnaeus). 

 Camel-fish; Box-fish; Trunk-fish; Shell-fish. 



Ostracium trigonus Linnseus, Systema Naturoe, ed. x, 330, 1758; "India". 

 Ostracion trigonum, Jordan, 1886, 30; Beaufort. Jenkins, 188 7, 93; Beaufort. 



Lactophrys trigonus, Yarrow, 1877, 204; Fort Macon. Jordan & Gilbert, 1879, 367; Beaufort. Jordan & Ever- 

 mann, 1898, 1723, pi. cclxiii, fig. 641. 



Diagnosis. — Body sharply 3-angled, the back elevated into a well marked, strongly com- 

 pressed hump; depth .5 length; head .25 length, the profile straight; peduncle long and slender, 

 its depth less than diameter of eye; each ventral ridge terminating in a long spine which extends 

 beyond origin of anal fin; shell open behind dorsal fin; a conspicuous ridge over each eye; dor- 

 sal rays 10; anal rays 10; caudal with rounded corners. Color: olive gray above, light green on 

 ventral surface; most of the side plates with -a light blue spot in the center; outlines of upper 

 plates black, of lower ones blue; several dusky areas on side; fins pale green; vent, iris, nostrils, 

 and base of pectorals yellow, {trigonus, three-angled.) 



Fig. 155. Camel-fish; Trunk-fish. Lactophrys trigonus. 



A common West Indian species, well known in Florida and sometimes found 

 as far north as Massachusetts.* It has occasionally been reported from Beaufort, 

 N. C. Yarrow recorded 2 specimens from the beach at Fort Macon; a specimen 

 in the State Museum at Raleigh came from Beaufort; and Jenkins states, on the 

 authority of Prof. W. K. Brooks, that small examples are often taken in tow nets 

 outside Beaufort Inlet. There appear to have been no recent captures at 

 Beaufort. Maximum length about 1 foot. 



* At Woods Hole the writer has found the very young not uncommon in stunmer; and on quiet days they 

 have been seen, singly or in small bunches, in eel grass about the wharves. Several dozen have been taken at 

 one haul of a small seine. 



