438 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.39. 



Misaki, near the Zoological Station of the Imperial University, in 

 August, 1900. This specimen, now before us, is typical of Lohotes 

 erate Cuvier and Valenciennes. We are, however, wholly unable to 

 separate this nominal species from the common Lohotes surinamensis 

 of the western Atlantic, 



On careful comparison of specimens and published plates, we 

 can not find any difference which will hold. The denticulations 

 on the preopercle are subject to much variation, and become 

 much less distinct with age, being long and prominent in the young. 

 Small specimens of L. surinamensis from Jamaica and Charleston, 

 South Carolina, in the Museum of Stanford University, show a some- 

 what greater depth, but this character is not borne out by the obser- 

 vations of other authors on adults from the same localities, and it is 

 very probable that the depth in this species grows less with age. 

 These facts account for the differences held to exist between the 

 species. 



Lohotes 'pacijicus Gilbert, from Panama (cotypes in the Stanford 

 Museum), must be regarded as a distinct species, having much 

 smaller preopercular spines, even in the young, and narrower subor- 

 bital bones. A specimen described by Sauvage from Madagascar as 

 L. surinamensis has large preopercular spines, notwithstanding a 

 total length of 2 feet, as shown by the indicated scale on the plate. 

 If this is correct, it may be a different species. 



2. Family LUTIANID^. 



THE SNAPPERS. 



Body oblong or more or less elevated, covered with moderate-sized 

 adherent scales, which are more or less strongly ctenoid or almost 

 cycloid. Lateral line well developed, concurrent with the back, 

 usually not extending on the caudal fin. Head large, the crests on 

 the skull usually well developed. No suborbital stay. Mouth mod- 

 erate or large, usually terminal, low and horizontal; premaxillaries 

 moderately protractile, their spines not extending to the occiput; 

 maxillary long, without supplemental bone (except in Doderleinia and 

 Glaucosoma, genera allied to the Serranidae), for most of its length 

 slipping under the edge of the preorbital, which forms a distinct 

 sheath (except in the genera just named); teeth various, usually 

 unequal and sharp, never incisor-like, sometimes deciduous, some of 

 them sometimes molar; vomer and palatines with villiform teeth 

 (these deciduous or wanting in Aphareus), sometimes molar, some- 

 times very small, sometimes wanting, tongue usually with a band of 

 teeth; lower pharyngeals separate; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; 

 pseudobranchise large; gill rakers moderate or long, slender; gill mem- 

 branes separate, free from the isthmus. Preopercle serrate or entire; 



