40 ON NEW OR INSUFFICIENTLY DESCRIBED FISHES 



PTEROPSARID^. 

 CHILTAS* gon. nov. 



Body elongate and fusiform. Scales with longitu- 

 dinal striae. Tubes of lateral line short and simple, occu- 

 pying the basal half of the exposed surface of the scale. 

 He^.d depressed ; cleft of mouth small ; lips very thick 

 and wide. Lower jaw without villiform teeth, mth two 

 strong hooked canines a,t the outer angle on either side. 

 Eyes superior, close together. Dorsal fin continuous, with 

 5 spines, the 4th longest : ventrals inserted below the base 

 of the pectorals. Otherwise as in Parapercis. 



Coast of Southern Queensland. 



Type Percis strictice'pf^ De Vis. 



The most notable characters in this proposed new genus 

 are the depressed head, approximate orbits, and position 

 of the ventrpols. 



Up to the present time only three species of ptero- 

 psarids have been captured in the seas of Queensland, but 

 it can only be a matter of time before four other species 

 are recorded ; they are as follows : — 



1. Parapercis nebulosa (Quoy and Gaimard), Voy. 



Uranie, ZooL, 1824, p. 349 = Perns emeryana 

 Richardson, 1842 = Percis coxii Ramsay. 1883 = 

 P. concinna De Vis, 1884. Coasts of intertro- 

 pical and juxtatropical Australia, ranging south- 

 ward at least as far as Port Jackson. 



2. Parapercis cylindrica ^Bloch), Ausl. Fisch., vi, 



1792, p. 42. pi. ccxcix, fig. 1. China Seas to North- 

 Eastern Queensland (Murray Island, Torres 

 Straits and Dunk Island), f and Lord Howe Island. 



3. Parapercis hexophthalma (Ehrenberg) Cuvier and 



Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iii, 1829, p. 271. 

 Red Sea to the Louisiade Archipelago. 



4. Parapercis tetracantha% (Lacepede), Poiss., iii, 1802, 



* )(eLXo<s, lip, with t^e affix tas, ; in allusion to the abnormal develop- 

 ment of the lips. 



f Since writing the above, I have received a fine specimen from 

 Moreton Bay. 



I The name is misleading since the species has, as is usual in the 

 genus, 5 spines in the 1st dorsal fin ; nevertheless Lacepede's failure to 

 enumerate the spines correctly does not confer on any subsequent author, 

 any more than on himself, authority to change the name ; much less doea 

 it permit of the use of the same name for a distinct species. 



