Jordan and Evermann. Pishes of North America. 1013 



Family CXLII. KUHLIID^. 



Body oblong, strongly compressed ; scales large, ciliated. Lateral line 

 complete, the tubes straight and occupying the anterior half of the 

 exposed surface of the scale. Mouth large, protractile ; maxillary 

 exposed, without supplemental bone; teeth in jaws in villiforin bands; 

 teeth on vomer, palatines, entopterygoids, and ectopterygoids tongue 

 smooth ; head partly naked ; preorbital and preopercle denticulate ; oper- 

 cle with 2 spines. Gill membranes separate ; 6 branchiostegals ; pseudo- 

 branchiae large; gill rakers long and slender. Dorsal fins connected at 

 the base, with X, 9 to 13 rays, the spinous portion longer than the soft. 

 Anal as much developed as the soft dorsal, with III, 10 to 12 rays. Dorsal 

 and anal fins fitting in a well-developed sheath. Caudal emarginate. 

 Pectorals obtusely pointed, with 14 or 15 rays, upper the longest. Ven- 

 trals behind base of pectorals, close together, with a strong spine. Pos- 

 terior processes of the premaxillaries not extending to the frontals; supra- 

 occipital bone extending forward to between the post-frontal processes, 

 its crest not extending on the upper surface of the cranium ; parietals 

 short, without crest. Precaudal vertebrae with transverse processes 

 behind the fourth ; ribs all but the last 2 to 4 sessile, inserted on the cen- 

 trum behind the transverse processes. (Boulenger.) Vertebras 25 (10 or 

 11 -f- 14 or 15). One genus with 7 or 8 species inhabiting the Pacific Ocean, 

 especially fresh and brackish waters of East Africa, the islands of the 

 Indian and Pacific oceans, and north Australia ; our species strictly marine. 

 The relations of this family have been much in doubt. Its species were 

 originally placed in the genus Dules, which is a near ally of Centropristes 

 and Serranus. Dr. Gill recognized the superficial resemblance of these spe- 

 cies to Xenichthys, which is one of the Sparoid forms. But in Kuhlia the 

 preorbital is narrow, serrated, and not sheathing the maxillary; there is 

 no axillary ventral scale and the opercle has 2 strong spines. All this 

 indicates Serranoid affinities, for which reason we have hitherto placed 

 Kuhlia near Morone. A similar thought seems to have been with Dr. Gill 

 when he proposed the name Moronopsis for species of Kuhlia. Very lately 

 Dr. Boulenger has shown in Kuhlia the presence of skeletal characters 

 of the Centrarchidaj, and in his catalogue Kuhlia is placed in the latter 

 family, but there are important differences and the natural character of 

 the group Centrarchidce disappears if this genus is introduced. We there- 

 fore admit Kuhliidcv as a distinct family between Micropterus and Morone 

 and closely allied to both. 



462. KUHLIA, Gill. 



Kuhlia, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1861, 48, (cilialus). 



Moronopsis, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1863, 82, (marginatus). 



Paradules, BLEEKER, Nederl. Tijdschr. v. Dierkunde, 1, 257, 1872, (marginatus = ciliatus). 



Body oblong, much compressed ; head compressed ; mouth short, oblique ; 

 maxillary without supplemental bone; lower jaw projecting; no canines; 

 the teeth subequal ; preorbital sharply serrate ; angle of preopercle with- 

 out strong spine. Gill rakers slender. Pseudobranchiae large. Scales 



