.542 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



Color. Dusky olive brown, somewhat clouded; sides with a 

 few irregular whitish spots; young spotted with brownish. 



South Atlantic coast, U. S., straying northward to coast of 

 Khode Island. The species is frequently taken in moderately 

 deep water off Charleston, Pensacola and Key West. Mitchill 

 described it from the Straits of Bahama. The common name 

 is given in allusion to the soapy feeling of the skin. The fish is 

 small and has no value for food. Nothing is recorded of its 



habits. 



Family LOBOTIDAE 



Triple-tails 



Genus L.OBOTES Cuvier 



Body oblong, compressed, and elevated, covered with moder- 

 ate-sized, weakly ctenoid scales; profile of head concave, the 

 snout prominent; mouth moderate, oblique, with thick lips; 

 upper jaw very protractile; lower jaw the longer; maxillary 

 without supplemental bone; jaws with narrow bands of villi- 

 form teeth, in front of which is a row of larger conical teeth 

 directed backward; no teeth on vomer or palatines; preorbital 

 narrower than eye; preopercle strongly serrate. Branchi- 

 ostegals six. Dorsal fin continuous, with 12 spines which may 

 be depressed in a shallow groove; soft rays of dorsal and anal 

 fins elevated; anal spines graduated; bases of soft dorsal and 

 anal thickened and scaly; caudal rounded. Air bladder present. 

 Pyloric caeca three. 



267 Lobotes surinamensis (Bloch) 

 Flasher; Triple-tail 



Holocentrus surinamensis BLOCK, Ichthyol. pi. 243, 1790, Surinam. 



Bodianus triurus MITCHILL, Trans. Lit. & Phil. Soc. N. Y. I, 418, pi. Ill, 

 fig. 10, 1815, Powles Hook, N. J. 



Lobotes auctonim GUNTHEB, Cat. Fish. Brit Mus. I, 338, 1859. 



JjObotes surinamensis CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss. V, 319, 1830; 

 DE KAY, X. Y. Fauna, Fishes, 88, pi. 18, fig. 49, 1842, New York; 

 HOLBROOK, Ichth. S. C. ed. 1,159, pi. 23, fig. 2, 1856; JORDAN & GILBERT, 

 Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus. 555, 1883; JORDAN & EVERMANN, Bull. 47, 

 U. S. Nat Mus. 1235, 1896, pi. CXC1V, fig. 510, 1900; H. M. SMITH, 

 Bull. U. S. F. C. 1897, 100, 1898; SHERWOOD & EDWARDS, Bull. U. S. F. 

 C. 1901, 28, 1901, Narragansett Bay. 



The body is oblong, deep, its depth four ninths of its length 

 -without the caudal; least depth of caudal peduncle three tenths 



