160 MEMOmS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



Regan supplies tlie following skeletal characters — " Premaxillaries with 

 rather long pedicels and short rami ; the latter without posterior expansions or 

 processes, and with their distal ends internal to the maxillaries. Occipital crest 

 strong ; parietal crests moderate or strong. All the precaudals with parapophyses,. 

 all the rihs, or all but the first, inserted on the parapophyses." 



Regan further subdivides the family in two groups, leased upon the follow- 

 ing cranial characters — 



" Siibocular shelf small, emitted by the second sviborbital but mainly intcnial to the first; 

 maxillary with a very broad posterior expansion below its articulation with the palatine ; 

 maxillary process of palatine norma! ; outer face of palatine with a prominent ridge which 

 extends on to the pterygoid " . . . . . . . . Pentapus, SPHiERODON. 



" Snbociilar shelf vestigial, a nainiite process of the second suborbital at its junction with the 

 first ; maxillary with a moderately broad posterior expansion, which is overlapped by a 

 flattish dowaiwardjy curved branch of the maxillary process of the palatine ; outer face 



of palatine without ridge" Letheinus. 



A snudl and compact family of percoidean fishes of moderate size, closely 



allied to the Lutianidcv, containing some of our finest food-fishes, and inhabiting 



chiefly the inshore waters of the Indian and Western Pacific Oceans ; one species. 



ranging eastward to the Hawaiian Islands, another from the West Coast of 



Africa. Three genera^ with numerous species recognised. 



Synopsis of lethrinoid Genera. 

 a^. Cheeks scaly ; maxillary exposed distally. 



b^. Upper surface of head scaly ; eye moderate ; opercle with a pungent spine ; lateral jaw- 

 teeth conical i. Pentapus. 



6^. Upper surface of head naked ; eye very large ; opercle without pungent spine ; lateral 



teeth molariform ii. Monotaxis.^ 



a^. Cheeks and upper surface of head naked ; maxillary concealed ; eye moderate ; opercle 



without true spines iii- Letheinus. 



Note: — The genus Bfonoiaxis has not as yet been recorded from Queensland 

 waters, but it has a wide range from the Red Sea on the west to Hawaii on the 

 east, and is a common fish among both the jMalayan and the South Sea Islands ; 

 it has also been recorded from " New Holland" by Knur and from the Engineer 

 Group oft' the south-east of Papua by Macleay. It is, therefore, only a matter of 

 time until its occurrence on our shores be made known. The enormous eye, 

 which is persistent through life, should attract collectors, while the young or 

 half-grown fish, with its two broad white cross-bands on an olive green or roseate 

 ground,forms so striking an object that its presence in our northern waters should 

 be easily ascertainable. 



PENTAPUS Cuvier and Valenciennes. 



Pentapus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 1830, p. 258 [vittatus) ; Giinther, Brit. 



Mus. Catal. Fish., i, 1859, p. 380 ; Day, Fish. India, pt. i, 1875, p. 93 ; Bleeker, Atlas 



Ichth., viii, pt. 2, 1877, p. 100. 

 Leiopsis Bennett, in Life of Raffles, 1830, p. 688. 

 Gnathodentex Bleeker, Versl. Akad. Amsterdam (2) vii, 1873, p. 41 (aurolineatus). 



1 1 can not admit the validity of Fowler's genus Lethrinella, because I have no specimens 

 of L. miniatus on which to form a judgment, and becaiose 1 have not had an opiaortvmity of 

 consulting the paper in which it is described, and which is not, so far as 1 know, to be foimd in 

 Australian libraries. With regard to Neolethrinus Castelnau (Res. Fish. Austr., 1875, p. 11), 

 if the author's description be correct, it can not belong to this family. 



^ Monotaxis Bennett, Life of Raffles, 1830, p. 083 {indica=grandocidls). 

 Sphcerodon Riippell, Neue Wirbelth. Abyss., Fisch., 1837, p. 112 [grandocuUs). 



