Jordan and Evcrmann. Fishes of North America. 



787 



Scoltpsis tayaim*, GILLIAMS, Journ. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phil*., iv, 1824, 81, near Philadelphia. 

 Aphredodern* gibbosu*, LE SUEUK, in Cuvier aud Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., ix, 448, 1833, 



Lake Pontchartrain. 



Sternotreitiia isolepis, NELSON, Bull. 111. Lab. Nat. Hist., I, 39, 1876, Calumet River, Illinois. 

 Aphododerus cookiamts, JORDAN, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1877, 60, Sawyer's Creek, Ken- 



dallville, Indiana. (Coll. Dr. G. M. Levette.) 

 A0lerno(re>iiia mewtrema, JORDAN, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, 52, 1877, Flint River, Georgia. 



(Type, No. 9296. Coll. Hugh M. Neisler.) 

 Aphredoderus sayamts, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 460, 1883; BLATCHLEY, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. 



Phila., 1885, 136. 



In a natural system, the Percopsidce should apparently be followed by 

 the Aphredoderidw, Elassomidoc, and Percidce, the great modern group of 

 spiny-rayed fishes having doubtless originated from some such stock as 

 that of which the Percopsidw form a remnant. The exigencies of a linear 

 arrangement require us to interrupt the series to find place for the groups 

 Percesoces, Rhegnopteri, and Berycoidei, probably archaic, transitional or 

 degenerate types, of diverse relations, but all of them branching off from 

 the physoclystous stock before the character of the spinous fins had 

 reached its full development. 



Suborder PERCESOCES. 



Ventral fins abdominal, I, 5; branchial arches well developed, the 

 bones all present except the fourth superior brauchihyal. Third superior 

 pharyngeal much enlarged; lower pharyngeals distinct. Scales cycloid. 

 Pectorals elevated, about on a level with the upper posterior angle of 

 operculum ; spinous dorsal usually present. 



as usual in Percoid fishes; as in the young flounder the eyes are symmetrical, but as the fish 

 grows older, its aberrant characters become developed. 



" The following table shows the position of the vent in 2G specimens: 



" No other conclusion seems possible from the above except that the vent moves forward as the 

 fish grows older, by the lengthening of the horizontal part of the intestine or "rectum" of the 

 fish. Sternotremia isolepis is the young, Sternolremia mesolrema the half grown, and Aphododerus 

 cookiamis the adult of one and the same fish." (Jordan, 1877.) 



