Dr. Richardson on a genus of Chinese Fish. 463 



exceptis. Labium inferius, ad mentum papillis teneris brevissimis 

 dense villosum, inter quas in apice menti pori duo exigui et in ramo 

 utroque maxillae inferioris pori tres majores numerandi sunt. Fovea 

 centralis sub mento nulla. 



Prceoperculuni arcuatum, serratum. Operculum denticulis duobus 

 vix inter squamas conspicuis armatum. 



Denies villosi, stipati, in serie extima supra et infra obesiores, nee 

 tamen altiores : dentes canini nulli. Palatum Iseve, plicatum. Pinna 

 dorsi ad basin fere bipartita, cum spina antica recumbenti. Mem- 

 brana branchiostega radiis sex sustentata. 



Spec. 1. H. nitens, Richardson, Zool, of Beagle, Fish. pl. 43. f. 1, 2. 

 2. H. analis, idem. pl. 43. f. 3. 



This genus is founded upon specimens of two species brought 

 from Canton by John Reeves, Esq., F.R.S., and presented by him 

 to the British Museum. Mr. Reeves had coloured drawings made 

 from the recent fish, copies of which exist in a volume of unpub- 

 lished figures collected by General Hardwicke, also in the British 

 Museum, and representations of both species are given in the 

 ' Zoology of the Voyage of H. M.S. Sulphur ' (plate 43). 



Hapalogenys agrees with the Scisenoid genus Lohotes in the 

 number of the gill-rays and tolerably closely in external aspect, 

 but it may be distinguished by the rounded preoperculum and 

 the arrangement of the pores on the chin. In the harshness of 

 its finely toothed scales it dificrs from the true Scianida, and it 

 can scarcely be separated fr'om the group to which Datnia and 

 Nandus belong. The presence or absence of vomerine and pala- 

 tine teeth, when employed rigidly as a distinctive character of the 

 Percoid and Scisenoid families, tends to separate genera agreeing 

 closely in other parts of their structm-e. Cuvier himself has dis- 

 regarded it in the arrangement of certain Percoids having fewer 

 than seven gill-rays; and it may be as well to go somewhat farther, 

 and to bring Serranus and its subgenera Plectropoma, Mesoprion 

 and Diacope, or the entne family of Serranidce, into a closer neigh- 

 bom'hood "svith Hainulon, Pristipoma and Diagramma, instead of 

 separating them by the interposition of the very dissimilar tribes 

 of Trigloids and Cottoids. For the same reason, a group of Per- 

 coids having less than seven gill-rays, which includes Therapon, 

 Helotes, Dides, Datnia, Nandus and some other genera, should be 

 approximated to Scolopsides, Lohotes and Hapalogenys, all having 

 a single dorsal and six gill-rays. To this group I have given the 

 family name of Theraponince. Anoplus, a genus recently pub- 

 Hshed in the ^ Fauna Japonica,' resembles Hapalogenys in the 

 strength of its dorsal and anal spines and in general form, but it 

 has still more of the Sparoid aspect than the latter. It has vo- 

 merine teeth, is destitute of pores on the jaw, and its scales are 

 less rigid than those of Hapalogenys. 



