Jordan and Evermann. fishes of North America. 1161 



501. GARRUPA, Jordan. 

 (BLACK GROUPERS.) 



Garrupa, JORDAN', Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., vin, 1888 (1890), 353, (nigritus). 



This genus contains very large groupers, closely allied to Epinephelus, 

 but with the skull different in form so far as its upper surface is con- 

 cerned. In Garrupa* the skull is very broad and flat, the interorbital 

 area is little concave, and the median ridge is scarcely evident ; the 

 occipital crest disappears before reaching the interorbital region; the 

 outline of the skull above is everywhere more or less flattened; the top 

 of the temporal crest points outward; the stay of the occipital crest 

 meets the crest at right angles and does not form a groove between itself 

 and the latter. A single species known, of very great size, its dorsal 

 spines indifferently 10 or 11. Atlantic Ocean. (Garrupa, the Portuguese 

 name of the large species of Epinephelus, transferred also to species of 

 Selastodes, and corrupted by the Americans into Grouper or Groper.) 



1556. GARRUPA NIGRITA (Holbrook). 

 (BLACK JEWFISH ; BLACK GROUPER ; MERO DE LO ALTO.) 



Head 2|; depth 2i ; eye very small, 6 to 8 in head. D. XI, 14 (nigrita), 

 or X, 14 (merus) ; A. Ill, 9 ; scales 90 to 110. Body very robust ; teeth in 

 broad bands; canines strong, but growing smaller with age. Interor- 

 bital width 4 in head; lower jaw projecting; maxillary scaly, about 2 in 

 head, extending beyond eye ; preopercle rounded, without salient angle, 

 the young with enlarged teeth at the angle. Gill rakers short and thick, 

 x -j- 12 to 14, the longest not twice as long as broad. Dorsal fin notched ; 

 second dorsal spine longest, its length 2 to 3 times in head, and half 

 longer than third spine ; caudal fin rounded ; second anal spine shorter 

 than third, 6 in head. Scales ciliated, those of lateral line of the ordi- 

 nary type. Color plain chocolate brown, varying to blackish gray, with- 

 out markings, or with faint pale blotches, the lower parts scarcely paler, 

 the distal part of the vertical fins darker ; a dark streak along edge of 

 maxillary. South Atlantic and Gulf coast of the United States (Charles- 

 ton to Pensacola) south to Cuba and Brazil, once straying to Sicily, 

 rather common off the coast of Florida. This species reaches a weight 

 of probably 500 pounds, about the same size as the largest known exam- 

 ples of Promicrops guttatus and Stereolepis gigas', but one specimen of less 

 than 100 pounds weight examined by naturalists. None of the European 

 Serranida' reaches so large a size, the extreme weight of Epinephelus guaza 

 being, according to Doderlein, about 50 kilograms; that of E. caninus, 90 

 kilograms, (nigritus, blackened.) (Eu.) 



Serranus nigritus, HOLBROOK, Ichth. S. Carolina, Ed. 1, 173, pi. xxv, fig. 11, 1856, Charleston ; 

 GUNTHER, Cat., i, 134, 1859. 



* In Epinephelus morio the skull is narrow and the upper surface rugose, the interorbital area 

 is deeply concave, and the median crest, though low, is quite prominent; the occipital crest is 

 sharp, and drawn out so that it gradually merges into the interorbital ridge; the outline of the 

 skull immediately behind the orbit is convex; the tip of the temporal crest points inward to the 

 occipital crest; the stay of the occipital crest forms a groove between it and the posterior part of 

 the crest. 



