1278 Bulletin 4.7, United States National Museum. 



vermilion; paler below; faint brown lines running obliquely forward and 

 downward from dorsal along the rows of scales ; sides with narrow sinuous 

 streaks of golden yellow, some of them longitudinal, others oblique; dor- 

 sal rosy, its margin chiefly orange; anal pale at base, rosy at extremity; 

 pectorals yellowish, ventrals rosy, caudal vermilion; iris vermilion-red ; 

 inside of mouth dusky. The bright colors grow faint or disappear in 

 spirits. Length about a foot; here described from a specimen from 

 Havana. West Indies, north to Charleston, south to Rio Janeiro; not 

 uncommon in deep waters as far north as Charleston and Pensacola. 

 Specimens from the coast of Carolina are some what deeper than those from 

 Cuba, and with the yellow streaks more pronounced, becoming dark brown 

 in spirits. One of these, in the U. S. National Museum, has 13 dorsal 

 spines. It is not, however, otherwise essentially different, (aureus, 

 golden; rubens, reddish.) 



Centropristis aurorubens, CUVIEB & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., in, 45, 1829, Brazil, 



Martinique, San Domingo. 



Mesoprion elegang, POEY, Memorias, n, 153, 1860, Cuba. 

 Aprion ariommus, JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat, Mus. 1883, 142, Pensacola; young 



with pterygoid teeth undeveloped. 

 Mesoprion aurorubens, GUNTHER, Cat., i, 207. 

 Rhomboplites aurorubens, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1862, 236 ; JORDAN & FESLEE, 



I. c., 454. 



Rhomboplites elegans, POEY, Repertorio, n, 158, 1868. 

 Lutjanus aurorubens, VAILLANT & BOCOURT, Miss. Sci. au Mexique, 117, 1877; JORDAN & 



GILBERT, Synopsis, 549. 



529. APSILUS, Cuvier & Valenciennes. 



(ARNILLOS.) 



Apsilus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 548, 1830 (fuscux, an East Indian 



species). 

 Tropidinius (GiLL, MS.) POEY, Synopsis, 296, 1868 (arnillo = dentatus) . 



This very distinct genus has essentially the cranial structure of Rliom- 

 boplltes, with the scaleless fins, peculiar squamation, and dentition of 

 Aprion. The prefrontals have the posterior areas solid and somewhat 

 tumid; there are no teeth on the pterygoids, tongue, or hyoid bones. The 

 dorsal tin is short and scaleless. (a, privative; ^zAo, bare or bald; the 

 meaning not evident. Our species representing the subgenus Tropidinius, 

 differs from Apsilus fuscus chiefly in the deeper body and larger head.) 



Subgenus TROPIDINIUS, Gill.* 

 1652. APSILUS DENTATUS, Guichenot. 



(ARNILLO.) 



Head 3; depth 2f . D. X, 10; A. Ill, 8. Scales 7-60-16, 60 pores. Body 

 rather deep, oblong, elliptical, compressed, the back somewhat elevated ; 

 profile from snout to nape little convex, the nape strongly keeled and 

 considerably convex ; snout rather short and blunt, 3| in head ; eye large, 



keel; Iviov, nape. 



