A REVIEW OF THE FISHES OF THE FA^IILIES LOBOTID^ 

 AND LUTIANID^, FOUND IN THE WATERS OF JAPAN. 



By David Starr Jordan and William Fraxcis Thompson, 



Of Stanford University, California. 



In the present paper an account is given of the Japanese species of 

 percoid fishes constituting the family of LobotidaB, or triple-tails, and 

 the family of Lutianidse, or snappers. It is based on material 

 obtained in Japan in 1900, by Professors Jordan and Snyder, and now 

 divided between the United States National Museum and the Museum 

 of Stanford University. 



The drawings for figures 2, 3, and 4 were made by Mr. Sekko 

 Shimada. 



Family EOBOTIDiE. 



The TRIPLE-TAILS. 



Bass-hke fishes, with an oblong, compressed body, equally developed 

 above and below; a short snout and anterior eyes; edentulous palate; 

 dorsal and anal with the soft portions equal and opposite, the former 

 preceded by a much longer spinous portion, the latter with 3 spines; 

 vertebrse 24, 12 abdominal and 12 caudal, the fifth to eleventh with 

 short but gradually lengthening parapophyses projecting sideways and 

 behind downward, and the twelfth with the parapophyses elongated, 

 converging at their extremities, and fitting into a groove of the first 

 haemal spine, the costiferous pits excavated obliquely in the developed 

 parapophyses, and gradually ascending forward on the vertebrse, and 

 finally on the ncurapophyses ; the skull with its frontal portion 

 broad, expanded forward and outward, and entering into the posterior 

 borders of the orbits, which are advanced far forward; the post- 

 frontals elongated forward and underlying the frontals; ethmoid 

 short, decurved, and expanded sideways (Gillj. This family con- 

 tains but two species, large fishes closely allied to the Serranidai, but 

 lacking vomerine and palatine teeth, and with the fore part of the 

 head very short. Its relations are decidedly with the Serranida? and 

 not with the Hiemulidaj with which group it agrees in the absence of 

 teeth on the palate. 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. 39— No. 1792. 



435 



