N0.12C6. LABROID FISHES OF JAPAN— JORDAN AND SNYDER. 6l7 
14. LEPIDAPLOIS AXILLARIS (Bennett). 
Lahrus axillaris Bennett, Proc. Comm. Zool. Soc, 1, 1831, p. 166; New Hebrides. 
Cos.'iyphnN arillaris Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XIII, 1837, 
p. 103, pi. cccLxxi; He de France, Ulea. — GtJNTHER, Cat. Fish., IV, 1862, 
p. 103; Mauritius, Madagascar, Aneitum. — Day, Fishes of India, 1885, 
p. 392 (with plate of Cossyphus neilli, apparently a different species having 
no dark spots). — Gunther, Fische der Siid-See, II, p. 239; Red Sea, Mauri- 
tius, Madagascar, New Hebrides, Society Islands, Paumotu, Otaheite. 
Head 3| in length; depth 3; depth of caudal peduncle 5f ; eye 4i 
in head; interorbital space 3f; snout 2f; D. XII, 10; A. Ill, 12; 
scales in lateral series 26; between lateral line and insertion of dorsal 
4; between lateral line and insertion of anal 10. 
Body elongate; caudal peduncle deep, compressed; head pointed; the 
snout long and sharp. Eye midway between tip of snout and border 
of opercle. Mouth large. Teeth in a single series, laterally coalesced 
at their bases, becoming entirely so anteriorly, where they are repre- 
sented by flat plates; an outer series of -1 fangs on the tip of each jaw, 
the lateral ones of which are curved outward; 2 strong fangs projecting 
forward from the posterior part of each side of upper jaw. Pseudo- 
branchiaj large ; gill-rakers on first arch 4+8, short, pointed. Posterior 
border of preopercle finely serrated. Scales extending as a basal sheath 
on dorsal, anal, and caudal fins; scales of cheek in 7 rows between eye 
and angle of preopercle; no naked space along edge of opercle; scales 
of head not elongate. Lateral line rather gently curved to follow con- 
tour of body below base of soft dorsal. Longest dorsal spine, 2|^ in 
head; longest ray, If; third anal spine, 1|; longest or first ra}^ If. 
Caudal truncate, 1\ in head; pectoral. If; ventral, 1^, not reaching anal 
opening. 
Color, in alcohol, dull ))rownish olive, a large brownish black spot 
on base of pectoral, both before and behind, a similar spot on upper 
anterior part of spinous dorsal, on upper anterior part of soft dorsal, 
and in the same place on anal, the latter somewhat the larger; a trace 
of lemon yellow on soft dorsal and anal; ventrals with rows of small 
dark spots. 
Color in life, according to Gunther, brick-red on anterior third 
above the ventral surface, pmk on the middle third, and orange pos- 
teriorly; the boundary between the red and pink oblique, between the 
pink and orange vertical; anterior ventral surface greenish; spinous 
dorsal pinkish, soft dorsal yellow, ventrals and anal greenish yellow, 
the former spotted with blue; the black spots as described above. 
This species is known to us from a specimen 170 millimeters long, 
received from Nafa, Okinawa Island, in the Riukiu archipelago. 
{axillaris, pertaining to the axil.) 
