1242 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



sometimes molar, sometimes very small, sometimes wanting; lower phar- 

 yngeals separate; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; flseudobranchise large; 

 gill rakers moderate or long, slender ; gill membranes separate, free from 

 the isthmus. Preopercle serrate or entire ; opercles without spines ; sides 

 of head usually scaly. Dorsal fin single, continuous, or deeply notched, 

 sometimes divided into two iins, the spines usually strong, depressible in 

 a groove, the spines heteracanthous, that is, alternating, the one stronger 

 on the right side, the other on the left, the spines 10 to 12 in number. 

 Anal fin similar to soft dorsal and with three spines ; ventral fins thoracic, 

 the rays I, 5, with a more or less distinct scalelike appendage at base; 

 caudal fin usually more or less concave behind. Air-bladder present, 

 usually simple. Intestinal canal short. Pyloric co?ca few. Vertebra? 

 usually 10 -f- 14 = 21. No distinct tubercles from the cranium for the 

 articulation of the epipharyngeal bones ; enlarged apophyses for the articu- 

 lation of palatine and preorbital bones; anterior 4 vertebne without 

 parapophyses. The family comprises about 20 genera and some 250 spe- 

 cies, chiefly inhabiting the shores of warm regions. All of them are 

 valued as food, and all are active, carnivorous, and voracious. The 

 group is closely related to the Serranidce on the one hand, and to the 

 Hwmulidce on the other. (Percldce, part, genera Mesoprion, Etelis, etc., 

 Giinther, Cat., i; Hoplopagrince, Lutianinw, Denticmw, and Xenichthyince, 

 Jordan & Fesler, I. c., 431-459.) 



HOPLOPAGRINCE : 



a. Vomer with teeth. 



6. Nostrils remote from each other, the anterior tubular, near the end of the snout; 

 vomerine teeth coarse, molar; teeth in jaws large, the lateral teeth molar } 

 (skull as in Lutianince). 



c. Yomer with about 3 coarse molar teeth; dorsal spines 10; scales large; 

 gillrakers few ; no teeth on palatines or on tongue ; lower pharyngeals 

 narrow, with small, conical teeth. HOPLOPAGBUS, 523. 



bb. Nostrils near together, placed just before eye, the anterior not tubular; vomer- 

 ine teeth villiform, the patch A, A' or 0- &na P e( l; teeth in jaws all acute j 

 no incisors or molars. 

 d. Palatines with teeth; teeth in jaws strong, more or less unequal. 



e. Interorbital area not flat nor separated from the occipital region, the 

 median and lateral crests procurrent on it, and the frontal nar- 

 rowed forward ; dorsal fin continuous, the spines not separated by 

 a notch from the soft rays. 



/. Prefrontals with the articular facets arising from diverging 

 V-shaped ridges; basi-sphenoid with an anterior lobiform 

 extension; soft dorsal, and anal scaly; dorsal spines 10 or 11 

 (in American species) ; tongue with teeth (at least in adult 

 examples). 



g. Fronto-occipital crest ceasing anteriority far from front of 

 frontal ; prefrontal with posterior areas impressed, long, 

 and cribriform; no pterygoid teeth; caudal fin lunate; 

 gill rakers rather few, shortish. 



h. Top of head scaled ; parietal crest confluent anteriorly 

 with the fronto-occipital crest; preopercle with a 

 deep notch, into which a projection from theintero- 

 percle fits, this character most marked in the adult. 



EVOPLITES, 524. 



