Mr. Gr. A. Boulenger on Threpterius maculosus. 397 



LVII. — On a little-known Australian Fish (Threpterius macu- 

 losus, Richards jn), imth Remarks on the Family Cirrhitidae. 

 By G. A. Boulenger, F.R.S. 



In 1850 the late Sir John Richardson described and figured 

 a fish from King George's Sound, where it is called by the 

 natives "Cumbeuk"; it was regarded by him as allied to 

 Latris and Ghilodactylus, but differing in the presence of 

 vomerine teeth and in the teeth in the jaws being short, 

 conical, and confined nearly to a single row, instead of being 

 setiform and crowded. For this fish a new genus and species 

 were established, named Threpterius* maculosus (Proc. Zool. 

 Soc. 1850, p. 70, pi. ii. fig. 1). 



I do not know what has become of the dried skins of 

 j\J r. Neill's, from which the fish was described by Richardson. 

 They are not in the British Museum and they were never 

 examined by Dr. Giinther, as is obvious from the fact of his 

 referring the fish to the genus Chironemus, with '' villiform 

 teeth in both jaws." In fact the species has never been 

 rediscovered since its original description. 



I was therefore not a little surprised to find among a 

 collection from Victoria, recently acquired by the Trustees of 

 the British Museum, a fine specimen which is undoubtedly 

 identical with the long-lost Threpterius maculosus. It shows 

 the genus Threpterius to be valid, for, although nearest allied to 

 Chironemus, it differs in the dentition, the teeth being conical 

 and subequal, in two or three rows in the prgemaxillary, in one 

 row in the mandible. I append a description of the single 

 specimen, obtained on the Melbourne market : — 



D. XIV 17. A. Ill 7. Sc. 55 {*g ■ 1. 1. 55. 



Depth of body equal to length of head, 3| in total length. 

 Diameter of eye 1^ length of snout, j length of head, nearly 

 double interorbital width ; maxillary extending to below 

 centre of eye ; upper surface of head and cheeks naked, 

 opercles scaly ; two opercular spines. Gill-membranes 

 broadly connected ; gill-rakers moderate, 14 on lower part of 

 anterior arch. Dorsal originating just behind the occiput, 

 the spinous portion a little longer than the soft ; fifth spine 

 longest, I longest sott rays, ^ length of head ; last spine 

 little more than ^ length of fifth. Pectoral as long as head, 



* GpeTTTJjptoy, ad alendum idoneus, 

 Ann. ds Mag. N. Hist. Ser. 6. Vol. xviii. 28 



