262 Mr. \Y. Schans 07i 



whicli had been placed in its neiglibourhood and wliose 

 relations lie thought had been misunderstood. He wrote 

 that an examination of the skeletons showed the family 

 Cinhitidae of Giinther to be a most artificial group, and that 

 if a natuial arrangement were to be attempted the only way 

 to deal with it -would be to disband it altogether. He then 

 proposed to place Cirrhites in the Serranidse ; Chilodactylus 

 was to join Ilaplodactylus in the Sparidse, and a distinct 

 family, Latrididte, was established for Ckironemus, Threp- 

 terius, and Latrt's. The presence or absence of a subocular 

 shelf and of parapophyses on the anterior vertebrse were 

 apparently the only characters taken into consideration in 

 this arrangement. That Chilodactylus has and Haplo- 

 dadylus has not a subocular shelf was apparently overlooked, 

 and Latris, which resembles these genera and differs from 

 Ckironemus and ThrepAerlus in having parapophyses on all 

 the praBcaudal vertebrae, was evidently associated with the 

 latter owing to an error in the tabular statement of the struc- 

 ture of the vertebral column. 



In the ' Cambridge Natural History ' (1904) the Cirrhitinfe 

 form a subfamily of the Serranidse; the l^atrididse include 

 only Latris, and are placed next to the Haplodactylidse, 

 comprising Baplodactylus, Chilodactylus, Ckironemus, and 

 Threpteriiis ; parapophyses are said to be developed from the 

 third or fourth vertebra and a subocular shelf to be absent ; 

 neither of these statements is true of all the genera. 



The presence or absence of a subocular shelf and the 

 development of parapophyses have some taxonomic import- 

 ance ; but other characters — for example, the number of 

 anal spines and the presence or absence of a pelvic axillary 

 process — are equally useful in classifying the Percoids. 

 Apparently the subocular shelf has been lost twice and para- 

 pophyses have been twnce independently developed on the 

 anterior prsecaudal vertebrse, within the limits of a single small 

 and uniform group, the Cirrhitiformes. 



XXX. — JS^ew Species of Heterocera from Costa Bica. — VI. 

 By W. SCHAUS, F.Z.S. 



Heorta mitis, sp. n. 



(J . Head and collar lilacine buff. Thorax pale greenish 

 and light brown, irrorated with fuscou?-brown scales. Abdo- 

 men above fuscous grey ; a dorsal tuft of brown scales at 



