1162 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



Centropristis menus,* POEY, Synopsis Piscium Cubensium, 288, 1868, Cuba; specimen with 10 dorsal 



spines. 

 Cerna sicana, DODERLEIN, Bivista delle Specie del Genere Epinephelus o Cerna, 1882, 81, Palermo; 



specimen with 10 dorsal spines. 

 Epinephelus nigritus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 540, 1883; JORDAN & SWAIN, Z. c., 1884, 380; 



JORDAN, Proc.- TJ. S. Nat. Mus., 1885, 208; JORDAN & EIGENMANN, ?. c., 361, 1890; BOUI.ENGER, 



Cat., i, 238. 

 Epinephelus merus, JORDAN & EIGENMANN, Z. c., 362, 1890. 



502. PROM1CROPS (Gill) Poey. 



(GUASAS.) 



Promicrops (GlLL MS.) POEY, Synopsis Piscium Cubensium, 287, 1868 ; Ann. N. Y. Lye. Nat. 



Hist., x, 1871, 42, (guasa). 

 Itaiara, VAILLANT & BOCOURT, Mission Scientifique au Mexique, 1875, 90, (Uaiara). 



Cranium short, extremely broad and depressed between the eyes, the 

 anterior profile of the head more or less concave. Dorsal spines all low. 

 Scales of the lateral line each with 4 to 6 radiating ridges. This genus is 

 fairly well distinguished by the peculiarities of its cranium. One species 

 is certainly known, a tropical fish of very large size, like the species of 

 Stereolepis and Garrupa. Dr. Boulenger does not separate either Promi- 

 crops or Garrupa from Epinephelus. The relationship of each to Epine- 

 phelus is certainly very close. (np6, before; plKpos, small; &t/>, eye; in 

 allusion to the shortness of the anterior part of the cranium.) 



1557. PROMICROPS GUTTATUS (Linnaeus). 

 (GUASA; SPOTTED JEWFISH ; MERO.) 



Head 2f to 3 ; depth 3^ ; eye very small, 7 in head (in young), about 12 

 in adult. D. XI, 16; A. Ill, 8; scales 16-95 to 135-40, pores 60 to 70. 

 Body more robust than in any species of Epinephelus, its greatest breadth 

 If in the depth. Head very large, unusually broad, anteriorly obtuse, 



*The following description of the nominal species, Garrupa merus (Poeyj, characterized by the 

 possession of 10 dorsal spines and by a more strongly armed preopercle, is taken from A specimen 

 from Kio Janeiro, (No. 9737, Mus. Comp. Zool.; Coll. L. Agassiz) : Head 2| in length of body ; 

 depth 2f . D. X, 14 ; A. Ill, 9. Scales 86 (series). Second dorsal spine 2f in head ; second anal 

 spine 6. Pectoral If ; maxillary 2 ; eye 7 ; snout 3% ; interorbital area 4% ; soft dorsal rays 

 2% in head. Body very deep and short, deeper and more compressed than in Epinephelus. Head 

 large and blunt, the anterior profile regularly convex ; interorbital area broad, as in Gamtpa 

 nigrita, rather convex ; eye small; mouth very large, the lower jaw projecting; supplementary 

 maxillary small. Three or four very small canines in front of each jaw; no lateral canines. 

 Nostrils round, near together, the posterior largest. Preopercle without salient angle, but rather 

 coarsely serrate; two or three very coarse, irregular teeth just below angle, these turned down- 

 ward much as in Epinephelus myslacinus. Opercular spine moderate. Gill rakers very short and 

 thick, x + 12, the longest not twice as high aa broad and all very coarsely toothed ; preorbital 

 moderate, nearly as broad as the small eye. Scales moderate, not very rough ; dorsal fin rather 

 deeply notched, the second spine highest, nearly three times the height of the first, but little 

 higher than the third ; soft dorsal high; caudal rounded; anal fin high, rounded, the spines 

 moderate, graduated ; pectorals short. Color, in spirits, plain dark brown ; fins all darker ; a 

 dark mustache along the edge of the maxillary. In a young specimen from Rio Grande do Sul 

 the caudal fin is abruptly paler. West Indies, recorded from off Cuba, Sicily, and Brazil. 

 (Merus, from merou, the French name of Epinephelus guaza, derived from Latin morrhua, codfish.) 

 Garrupa merus is probably identical with Garrupa nigrita. The five known specimens of Garrupa 

 merus (from Havana, Palermo, Rio Janeiro, Rio Grande do Sul) differ from Garrupa nigrita in 

 having 10 dorsal spines instead of 11, no other distinction being evident. Often specimens of 

 Garrupa nigrita from Pensacola, Florida, examined by us, one has 10 spines, the others 11. 

 Probably all belong to one species, for which the oldest name is nigrita. 



