998 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



maxillary reaching past anterior margin of eye ; supplemental maxillary 

 present, small ; palatine teeth present. Gill rakers rather long, stiff, and 

 strong, x + 8 or 9. Opercular flap small, short, and deep ; shorter than 

 eye. Dorsal spines high, the middle ones highest and nearly half head, as 

 long as snout and orbit ; pectoral H to \\ in head, ventral reaching anal. 

 Olivaceous, with numerous small deep brown spots, smaller than pin- 

 heads, resembling fly specks ; most distinct on lower part of the sides, 

 where they form lines along the rows of scales, and on the opercles; 

 sometimes they cover the whole body ; spots rarely obsolete ; fins plain 

 dusky. Length 6 inches. A handsome species, known at sight by the 

 peculiar coloration. South Carolina to Florida, in lowland streams. Not 

 rare, (punctatus, spotted. ) 



Brytius punctatus, CUVIEK & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vn, 462, 1831, Charleston, South 



Carolina. 

 Eryttus reticulalus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., 4C3, 1831, Charleston, South 



Carolina, 



Lepomis apiatus, COPE, Proc. Amer. Philos. Soc., 1877, 65, Volusia, Florida. 

 Lepomis punctatus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 476, 1883. 

 Apomotis punctatus, BOULENGER, Cat., i, 23. 



1895. APOMOTIS SIMMETRICUS (Forbes). 



Head 2f ; depth 2J; eye 3f ; snout 4. D. X, 10; A. Ill, 9; scales 

 6-35-10 ; tubes developed on 14 scales only ; 5 rows on cheek. Body 

 rather short and deep, the back evenly arched, a slight depression above 

 eye; caudal peduncle stout, its least depth nearly i length of head. 

 Mouth small, oblique, the maxillary reaching to vertical of eye ; supple- 

 mental maxillary bone present; opercular process f diameter of eye, 

 flexible margin narrow, the black not confined to the bony part. 

 Lower pharyngeals broad, broader than in somewhat larger specimens of 

 Eupomolis gibbosus, the teeth bluntly conic ; gill rakers long and slender, 

 the longest more than half diameter of eye. Lateral line gently 

 arched, incomplete. Fins moderate ; longest dorsal spine equal to dis- 

 tance from tip of snout to posterior edge of pupil ; soft dorsal higher, its 

 longest ray half length of head ; pectorals long, 1 in head, reaching 

 third anal spine ; ventrals short, scarcely reaching anal, or nearly twice 

 in head ; anal size of soft dorsal. Coloration in alcohol : Base of each 

 scale on upper parts of body and along sides brown, outer margin pale, 

 the general appearance resulting being that of 12 or 13 longitudinal rows 

 of brown spots, 4 of which lie above the lateral line ; on the caudal 

 peduncle the spots are less regular; all parts of the body, including fins 

 as well, covered thickly with small coifee-colored specks, the head and 

 breast being especially thickly covered ; tips of the ventral fins black ; 

 no black spot on dorsal or anal and no blue lines on cheek. Length 3 

 inches. Mississippi Valley, Illinois to Louisiana and Texas; a pretty 

 little fish, not rare southward in lowland streams ; here described from 

 specimens collected by Evermann and Gurley at Houston, Texas. It 

 shows affinities with Eupomotis. (symmetricus, a word improperly assumed 

 as the antecedent of our symmetrical, for which the Greek is 



