1140 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



1537. GONIOPLECTRUS H1SPANUS (Cuvier & Valenciennes). 

 ("SPANISH FLAG"; OUATILIBI ESPAQNOL ; BIAJAIBA DE LO ALTO.) 



Head 2| in length; depth 2f , D. VIII, 13; A. Ill, 7; scales 70. Body 

 short and deep, with very short, deep tail; interorbital region narrow, 

 the bones rugose ; snout 3f in head ; maxillary reaching middle of orbit, 

 2 in head, naked, its supplemental bone well developed; preorbital nar- 

 row ; lower jaw projecting, teeth very small, in narrow, villiform bands, 

 the depressible teeth very few ; a stout canine on each side, in front of 

 each jaw, and 1 or 2 similar canines in middle of side of lower jaw ; eye 

 4^ in head (exclusive of opercular spine) ; preopercle finely serrate, with 

 a single very large antrorse hook at its angle; opercle ending in 4 spines, 

 the second of which is long, straight, compressed and knife-shaped, as 

 long as eye; nostrils small, round, separated, the posterior the larger; 

 suborbital serrate on its edge ; gill rakers rather long and slender, x + 15 ; 

 scales small, firm, and rough ; lateral line arched, running high, close to 

 middle of spinouj dorsal and then bent abruptly downward; dorsal 

 spines low and stout, the fin notched; soft dorsal short and rather high; 

 longest dorsal spine 3 in head; second anal spine 2|, very strong, longer 

 than third, the soft rays high and rather short, scaly ; pectorals moderate, 

 unsymmetrically rounded at tip, the upper rays longest, longer than ven- 

 trals, 1J- in head; caudal truncate, its peduncle as deep as long. Color 

 rose-colored, with yellow stripes along head and back ; top of head with 

 orange spots ; a pale bar before vent ; caudal fins sometimes with dark 

 spots : fins otherwise plain. West Indies ; not common ; the specimens here 

 described from Cuba, being sent by Poey to the Museum at Cambridge. 

 (hispanus, Spanish, its splendid colors resembling those of the Spanish 

 flag.) 



Plectropoma hispanum, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES Hist Nat. Poiss., n, 396, 1828, Martinique; 



POET, Memonas Cuba, i, 72 pi. 4, fig. 1, 1851 ; GCNTHER, Cat., i, 165, 1859. 

 Gonioplectrus hispanus, POEY, Synopsis, 289, 1868; JORDAN & EIGENMANN, I. c., 346, 1890; Bou- 



LENGER, Cat., i, 159. 



498. PETROMETOPON, Gill. 

 (ENJAMBRES.) 



Petrometopon, GILT,, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1865, 105, ("guttatus," POEY =cruentatus). 



Frontal bones with an anterior groove or excavation for the reception 

 of the posterior processes of the premaxillaries, without processes on the 

 upper surface ; a curved or angular ridge across the posterior portion of 

 the frontals in fiont of the supraoccipital, connecting the parietal crests! 

 supraoccipital and parietal crests not produced forward. Dorsal spines 

 9; anal rays mostly III, 8; scales ctenoid; otherwise essentially as in 

 Epineplielus. Species rather few, mostly of small size, distinguished from 

 Bodianus chiefly by the peculiarities of the frontal bones, the above 

 account being taken from Boulenger, Cat., i, 175. (ucrpof, stone ; /ueruTrov,* 

 forehead.) 



* " Distinguished by the petrous-like convexity between the supraorbital grooves and its 

 triangular sinus behind, into the angles on each side of which the lateral crests terminate; the 

 crests are parallel and the surface between flat or slightly convex." Gill. 



