636 Series Plectognathi 
length, and weighed 1200 pounds. Another, almost as large, 
was taken at San Diego, in April, 1904. No difference has been 
noticed among specimens from California, Cape Cod, Japan, 
and the Mediterranean. The young, however, differ con- 
siderably from the adult, as might be expected in a fish of such 
great size and extraordinary form. 
Fragments named Chelonopsis, and doubtfully 
referred to Mola, are found in the Pliocene of 
Belgium. Certain jaws of cretaceous age, attrib- 
uted to Mola, probably belong, according to 
Woodward, to a turtle. 
Fic. 583.—The King of the Mackerel, Ranzania makua Jenkins, 
from Honolulu. (After Jenkins.) 
In the genus Ranzania, the body is more 
elongate, twice as long as deep, but as in Mola, 
the body appears as if bitten off and then pro- 
vided with a fringe of tail. The species are 
rarely taken. Ranzania truncata is found in the Mediterranean 
and once at Madeira. Ranzania makua, known as the king of 
the mackerels about Hawaii, is beautifully colored brown and 
silvery. This species has been taken once in Japan. 
In Hawaii it is believed that all the Scombroid fishes are sub- 
ject to the rule of the makua and that they will disappear it 
this fish be killed. By a similar superstition, Regalecus glesne 
is “king of the herrings’’ in Norway and about Cape Flattery, 
Trachypterus rex salmonorum is “ king of the salmon.”’ 
