edwin chapin starks 59 



Family LABRID^. 

 187. Halichoeres penrosei Starks, new species. 



Plate 7. 



The form of the head and the body is about as in Halichoeres bivittatiis. 

 The head is contained 3)4 times in the length to the caudal base, and depth 

 4 times. The posterior canine is well developed and sharp. The eye is con- 

 tained ^y2 times in the head, and the snout 3^4 times. 



The fin formula is, dorsal X, 10; anal III, 11. The pectoral reaches 

 past the tip of the ventral, but not to the vent. The ventrals are not fila- 

 mentous and their length is equal to the combined length of the snout and 

 eye. The caudal is double truncate behind. The scales are reduced in size 

 in front of the dorsal and are continuous over the median line. About 12 

 series are present in front of the dorsal. The lateral line crosses 26 scales. 

 It is continuous and drops to a lower level on the seventh and eighth scales 

 from the posterior end. The pores are simple. 



A broad, solid black band, much wider than the eye medially, runs from 

 the tip of the snout to the base of the caudal. Behind the opercle its lower 

 edge is on a level with the middle of the eye. It is separated above from the 

 color of the back by a narrow light band, which meets its fellow of the op- 

 posite side on the top of the snout, where they form a V-shaped mark, as 

 viewed from above. The dark color of the back is well-defined above the 

 light streak, but it is very much lighter than the lateral band. Below the 

 lateral band are faint dusky traces of a second band. With this exception 

 there is no color below the lateral band except on the pectoral, which is 

 slightly dusky and has a black dot on its base above. From the sixth to the 

 seventh dorsal spines is a black spot ; otherwise the fins are entirely without 

 color. 



This species differs from most of the species of its genus in having the 

 scales in front of the dorsal reduced in size and crossing the median line of 

 the back as in Halichceres semicinctus, and in having 10 dorsal spines. These 

 characters will separate it at once from H . maculipinna and H . bivittatiis, 

 which it somewhat resembles in color. 



The type and only specimen is 2^ inches long, and was taken in a 

 tide pool at Natal. 



I take pleasure in naming this species for Dr. R. A. F. Penrose Jr., some- 

 time lecturer on geology in Stanford University, in recognition of his in- 

 terest in the Stanford Expedition to Brazil. 



