592 i\Ir. G. A. Bouleiiger on a Bniish Specimen 



LXXXI. — On a British Specimen of the Great Sea-Perch 

 Epiiieplielus cernioides, Capello. By G. A. BOULENGER, 

 F.R.S. 



The i(l( ntificalion of tlie hufje sea-pcrclics of the genus 

 Epinephe/us wliicli liave, at rare intervals, been captured on 

 the coast of Cornwall has been a matter of difficulty, as 

 the specimens on which the records are based do not aj^pear 

 to have been preserved. Yarrell, Couch, and Day have 

 confounded several quite distinct fishes in tiieir synonymies 

 of " Serranus gicjas.'^ Yarrell's figure certainly rej)resents 

 an FpinepheJus gifjas, but it was not taken from a British 

 example, whilst Couch's coloured plate, though incorrect, 

 cleaily represents an adult Epinephelus ceneus ; so does 

 Day's plate, taken from a young specimen received from the 

 Berlin Museum. Probably examples of two or three different 

 species of the large Epinephelus of the Mediterranean and 

 neighbouring parts of the Atlantic have occasionally wandered 

 to our south-western coast, but E. ceneus is the only one 

 which, through Couch's description and figure, may be 

 regarded as properly identified. 



Thanks to the generosity of the Directors of liarrods 

 Stores, the British ]\Iu.seum has received, in fresh condition, 

 a very fine sefi^j^erch measuring 4 ft. 2 in. and weighing 

 70 lbs., whi(^i2;e b'' caught in the middle of May off Looe in 

 Cornwall, .-esc"'^ proves to belong to a species, hitherto un- 

 represented in the Kational Collection, which was described 

 and figured by Brito Cajiello in 1867 as Serranus cernioides, 

 from the coast of Portugal. Although placed by Day in the 

 synonymy of <S'erra??M6' ^/ya.9, this species differs from it, as 

 well as from E. ceneus, in several imjjortant characters. The 

 teeth, which Capello described, somewhat vaguely, as in broad 

 bands, differ from those of E. gigas in being in two series 

 on the sides of the lower jaw, as in E. ceneus. Whilst in the 

 smaller scales, all ctenoid, and covering nearly the whole 

 maxillary, and in the ridgc-like base of the three opercular 

 spines, this species differs from the latter and bears some 

 resemblance to Polyprion americanus or cemium, whence the 

 name cernioides chosen by Capello. 



The following description is drawn u]i from the Looe 

 sj)ecimen : — 



Teeth in villiform bands in the upper jaw and in front of 

 the lower, with an outer series of larger conical teeth, siuiilar 

 to those on the sides of the lower jaw, where they form two 



