1204 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



DIPLECTRUM: 



aa. Preopercle with 2 clusters of divergent spines, the one at the angle, the other higher 

 (the two fascicles well separated in the adult, but smaller and coalescent in the young). 

 e. Head and body marked with many interrupted blue lines; preorbital broad, more than 

 twice the width of maxillary; lower half of preopercle with strong, straight 

 spines diverging from two centers; gill rakers short and small, x -f 14; 11 rows of 

 scales on checks; caudal deeply lunate, the upper lobe the longer, sometimes end- 

 ing in a long filament. Color brownish, silvery below; sides with 7 or 8 longi- 

 tudinal deep-blue lines and about aa many dark cross bars, the last bar forming a 

 largo black blotch at upper base of caudal; young with 2 broad, dusky longitudi- 

 nal stripes, which become interrupted with age; 3 or 4 distinct blue stripes on 

 sides of top of head; 2 across preorbital, the lower forked; fins with narrow, 

 wavy bars of blue and pale yellow. FOBMOSUM, 1594. 



Subgenus HALIPERCA, Gill. 

 1590. DIPLECTRUM SCIURUS, Gilbert. 



Head 2f- to 3 in length; depth 3f (in specimens 5 inches long). D. X, 

 12 ; A. Ill, 8. Scales on cheeks small, in 7 or 8 rather regular rows. Lat- 

 eral line with about 52 pores, about 75 vertical rows of scales above it ; 

 about 18 scales before dorsal. A single rather wide cluster of spines at 

 angle of preopercle, much as in Diplectrum macropoma, the width of the 

 cluster 4i to 5 in head, in specimens 5 inches long. Upper angle of pre- 

 opercle nearer to end of opercular flap than tip of snout. Vertical fins 

 low, the height of soft dorsal length of head. Gill rakers long and 

 slender, about 14 -f 25. In color this species differs from its near relatives 

 in having no black oil the inside of gill cover, and in having a very light 

 blue line below the orbit ; the snout is without spots or streaks ; the 

 upper part of body is crossed with irregular dusky bars, and the soft 

 dorsal and caudal are marked with round yellow spots half as large as 

 the pupil, ocellated with blue or dusky. Known from small specimens 

 taken in considerable numbers, at stations 3014, 3015, 3021, 3026, and 3033, 

 all in shallow water in the Gulf of California. This species most resem- 

 bles Diplectrum macropoma, differing strongly from this and all other spe- 

 cies of the genus in the very numerous long and slender gill rakers, 

 which are $ the diameter of the eye, even in young specimens ; they are 

 about 25 in number on the horizontal limb of the outer arch, instead of 

 12 as in radiale and macropoma, or 9 as informosum. (Gilbert.) (Sciurus, 

 squirrel ; the name squirrel-fish has been long applied to Diplectrum for- 

 mosum, perhaps from a croaking noise it makes.) 



Diplectrum sciurus, GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1891, 550, Gulf of California, Albatross 



Stations, Nos. 3014, 3021, 3020, and 3033. (Coll. Albatross.) 

 Serranus sciurus, BOULENGER, Cat., i, 298. 



1591. DIPLECTRUM RADIALE (Quoy & Gaimard). 



(AOUAVINA.) 



Head 3 ; depth 3. D. X, 12 j A. Ill, 7 ; scales 8-60 to 70-20, 48 to 55 

 pores. Scales on cheeks small and regularly placed in about 10 rows; 

 width of preopercular process 4| to 5 in head, its posterior edge rounded ; 



