488 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.xxiv. 
head in this species are ctenoid. Another prominent mark of distinc- 
tion is a series of 3 rows of small dusky spots on the rays of the soft 
dorsal. 
Coast of Japan, thus far recorded only from Tokyo Bay, where our 
two specimens were taken. 
(Parvus, small; squama, scale.) 
Family VII. LATILID^E. 
Bod}" more or less elongate or compressed. Head subconical, the 
anterior profile usually convex; suborbital without bony stay; the 
bones not greatly developed; cranial bones not cavernous; opercular 
bones mostl}^ unarmed. Mouth terminal, little oblique; teeth rather 
strong; no teeth on vomer or palatines; the premaxillary usually with 
a blunt posterior canine, somewhat as in the Lahridce; premaxillaries 
protractile; maxillary without supplemental bone, not slipping under 
the edge of the preorbital. Gills 4, a long slit behind the fourth; 
pseudobranchia? well developed; gill membranes separate, or more or 
less united; lower pharyngeals separate. Scales small, ctenoid; lateral 
line present, complete, more or less concurrent with the back; dorsal 
fin relatively long and low, usually continuous, the spinous portion 
always much less developed than the soft portion, but never obsolete; 
anal fin very long, its spines feeble and few; caudal fin forked; tail 
homocercal; ventrals thoracic I, 5, close together; pectoral fins not 
very Inroad, the rays all branched; vertebrte in normal or slightly 
increased number (24 to 30). Pterygials long, hour-glass shaped, rest- 
ing on both coracoids. Pyloric coeca few or none. Fishes of the 
temperate and tropical seas, some of them reaching a large size. 
Boulenger places these fishes with the Pseudochromididse, and most 
late writers with the Malacanthida^. There is no evidence of any 
close relationship to either, and we provisionally give the group family 
rank. 
a. Latilinpe. — Soft dorsal and anal moderate, each of 13 to 15 soft rays; preopercle den 
ticulate; scales small; form robust; nape and lips without adipose appendages. 
Latilus, 13. 
18. LATILUS Cuvier and Valenciennes. 
Coryphsenoides hACEPEDE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., Ill, 1802, p. 176, {houtiuynijaponicus) 
( not of Gunner, a genus of Macrouridse of prior date ) . 
Latilus Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1830, p. 368, {argentatus) . 
Body rather elongate, compressed, cov^ered with small silvery, finely 
ciliated scales. Mouth horizontal, moderate, the jaws subequal; eye 
large, lateral; jaws with villiform teeth, besides a posterior canine; 
no teeth on vomer or palatines; preopercle serrate, opercle entire. 
Pseudobranchi» present. Branchiostegals six. No adipose append- 
age on nape; no appendage to the lips. Dorsal rays about VII-14, 
