Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1247 



525. NEOM^ENIS, Girard. 

 (SNAPPERS.) 



Neomcenis, GIRARD, TJ. S. Mex. Bound. Survey, Zool., Fishes, 18, 1859 (emarginatus = 



griseus). 

 Raizero, JORDAN & FESLKR, Kept. U. S. Fish Comm. 1889 (1893), 438 (aratus). 



Body oblong, compressed, the back somewhat elevated; head long, 

 naked above, except for a broad oblique band of scales at the nape; nos- 

 trils normally close together, neither with a tube; mouth large, the jaws 

 with bands of villiform teeth, besides which is usually an outer series of 

 larger teeth in each jaw, and 2 to 4 stronger teeth or canines in front of 

 upper jaw; voiner with villiform teeth; villiform teeth on the palatines; 

 usually one or more patches of teeth on the tongue in the adult; no molar 

 teeth; no teeth on pterygoids; preopercle without notch or with a shallow 

 emargination ; posterior limb of preopercle finely serrate; gill rakers 

 rather few, shortish; soft rays of dorsal and anal scaly at base; dorsal 

 spines 10 (rarely 11), continuous with the soft rays; caudal lunate or 

 forked ; anal rays 7 to 9. Interorbital area not flat nor separated from the 

 occipital region, the median and lateral crests procurrent on it, and the 

 frontal narrowed forward; fronto-occipital crest ceasing anteriorly far 

 from front of frontal, usually behind eye ; prefrontal with posterior areas 

 impressed, long and cribriform ; parietal crest not confluent with orbital 

 rim, but nearly or quite joined anteriorly to fronto-occipital crest (in 

 species examined) ; prefrontals with the articular facets arising from 

 diverging V-shaped ridges; basisphenoid with an anterior lobiform 

 extension. Vertebrae 10 -f- 14 = 24. We venture to separate the American 

 Pargos or Snappers from the Old World genus Lutianus on the following 

 characters, distinctive so far as known : Parietal crest usually confluent 

 anteriorly with the orbital rim, never joined anteriorly to the fronto- 

 occipital crest; top of head naked; a more or less isolated band of scales 

 extending obliquely on each side of nape; notch on preopercle for the 

 reception of knob of interopercle shallow and broad, sometimes obsolete, 

 otherwise essentially as in Lutianus.* Species very numerous, chiefly 



* The true relations of Neomcenig, Lutianus, Genyoroge, Evoplites, and Proamblys are 

 yet to be determined. It seems to us that none of our species is congeneric with Lutianus 

 iuti<i mis. the type of Lutianus, while Evoplites dift'ers materially from the type of Genyo- 

 roge. A full study of the skeletons must, however, be made before these genera can bo 

 placed on a sound basis. The following is the synonymy of the Asiatic groups : 



LUTIANUS, Bloch. 



Lutianus, BLOCH, Tchthyologia, iv, 107, 1790 (lutianus) ; the name first spelled Lutianus, 

 hut later changed, on the plates and elsewhere, to Lutjanus. It is from Ikan lutjang, 

 the Malayan name of Lutianus lutianus. 



Mi'soprioH, CUVIER &. VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., n, 441, 1828 (lutianus, etc.). 



/ Ilypoplites, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 236 (retrospinis). 



GENYOROGE, Cantor. 



Diacope, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., n, 410, 1828 (sebce) ; name preoccupied 



in Lepidoptera. 

 Genyoroge, CANTOR, Malayan Fishes, 12, 1850 (sebce) ; substitute for Diacope. 



PROAMBLYS, Gill. 



Proamblys, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 236 (nigra = macolor). 

 Macolor, BLEEKER, Poiss. Amboina, Nederl. Tidskr. Dierk., 277, 1867 (macolor). 



