On the Fishes of the Family Stromateitlaj. 115 



new mesenteries are disposeJ at either the one or tlie other 

 extremity, not at both. 



4. Six new bilateral pairs of mesenteries appear practically 

 simultaneously in Madrepora, but only later do they all 

 extend down the polypal wall. In Porites the new pairs 

 follow one another in a regular succession. 



5. In Madrepora the mesenterial increase is early associated 

 with fission of the stomodaeum and in the end probably with 

 complete polypal fission, in which half the mesenteries of 

 each fission polyp are derived from the primary twelve of the 

 original polyp and the other half are new formations. The 

 resulting paired arrangement of the mesenteries, including the 

 presence of two pairs of directives, is exactly as in primary 

 polyps. Fission of the stomodseum appears very late in 

 Porites, not until after the full establishment of six new pairs 

 of mesenteries. 



(References in No. 155, Jan. 1902 ; see * Annals ' for May 

 1902.) 



XV. — A Revision of the Fishes of the Family Stromateida3. 

 Qy C. Tate Began, B.A. 



Since the revision of this family by Gill * in 1881, when he 

 considerably enlarged its limits as understood by Uunthert, 

 no additions have been made to our knowledge of its affinities. 

 The character which has always been taken as diagnostic of 

 this family is the presence of teeth in the oesophagus, and 

 Giinther grouped the fishes which possessed this character 

 into two genera^ Stromateus and Centrolophus ; to these Gill 

 added the genus Schedophilus, placed by Giinther in the 

 Coryphajnidge, the genus Paiinurichthys {Pammelas, Gthr.}, 

 placed by Giinther in the Carangidse^ and the species Psenes 

 anomaJus [Trachynotus anomalus, Schleg.). Gill subdivided 

 the family thus constituted as follows: — 



Subfamily CENxaoLOPHiN^, 



with complex elongate gill-rakers extending backwards from the epi- 

 branchials of the last gill-arch, 11 abdominal and 14 caudal vertebrae, 

 protractile premaxillaries, and normal persistent ventral fins. 



Genus 1. Centrolophus; body elongate, dorsal spines slender. 



2. Scheduphilus ; body ovate, dorsal with 4 short stout spines. 



3. Lirus ; body ovate, dorsal with 6 to 8 short stout spines. 



* Gill, Proc. Am. Phil. Soc. xxi. p. 664 (1884). 

 t Guutber, ' Study of Fishes,' p. 452 (1880). 



