Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1289 



smaller mouth, and fewer dorsal spines, all characters of minor importance. 

 All are Asiatic, except the one very imperfectly described species said to 

 have been taken in our waters, (vijjua, thread; Ttrspor, fin.) 



1661. NEMIPTERUS MACRONEMUS (Gunther). . 



Head 4 ; depth 3f (with caudal). D. X, 9; A. Ill, 7. First dorsal spine, 

 upper lobe of caudal, and first ray of ventral, produced in long filaments. 

 Color red (Cuvier & Valenciennes). This species is known only from the 

 original type, a young specimen said to have been sent by Diepering from 

 Surinam, but Avhich may be really from the East Indies. Nemipterus 

 macronemm agrees very closely with Nemipterus nematophorus, Gunther, 

 from Sumatra. According to Bleeker the chief differences are these, that 

 in macronemus but 1 dorsal spine is filamentous, in nematophorus 2; in 

 macronemm the fins are more pointed. All these are doubtful characters, 

 and it may well be that Nemipterus macronemus came from Sumatra rather 

 than from Surinam. Collections from the Dutch East Indian and West 

 Indian colonies have been repeatedly mixed in European museums. 

 (uaxpoS, long; vf/jita, thread.) 



Dentex filamentosus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vi, 254, pi. 155, 1830, 



Surinam; not Cantharus filarnentosus, lliippell, also a Nemipterus. 

 Synagrifs inacroneimis, GUNTHER, Cat., I, 380, 1859, Surinam; after CuviEE. 

 Nemipterus macronemus, JORDAN & FESLER, I. c., 505. 



Family CL. H^EMULID^E. 



(THE GRUNTERS.) 



Body oblong, or more or less elevated, covered with moderate-sized, 

 adherent scales, which are more or less strongly ctenoid or almost cycloid ; 

 lateral line well developed, concurrent with the back, usually not extending 

 on the caudal fin ; head large, the crests on the skull usually largely devel- 

 oped; no suborbital stay; mouth large or small, usually terminal, low, 

 and horizontal ; premaxillaries protractile, their spines not greatly pro- 

 duced backward; maxillary without supplemental bone, for most of its 

 length slipping under the edge of the preorbital, which forms a more or 

 less distinct sheath; preorbital usually broad, no barbels; teeth all 

 pointed, none of them forming marked canines ; no teeth on the vomer, 

 palatines, and tongue; lower pharyngeals separate, with pointed teeth ; 

 gills 4, a large slit behTnd the fourth ; pseudobraiichiaB large ; gill rakers 

 moderate; gill membranes separate, free from the isthmus; preopercle 

 serrate or entire; opercle without spines; sides of head usually scaly; 

 dorsal fin single, continuous or deeply notched, sometimes divided into 

 2 fins, the spines usually strong, depressible in a groove; the spines heter- 

 acanthous, that is, alternating, the one stronger on the right side, the 

 other on the left, the spines usually 10 to 12 in number; anal fin similar 

 to the soft dorsal, and with 3 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; 

 stomach cereal ; pyloric coeca few ; vertebras usually 10 -j- 14 = 24. Branch- 

 iostegals usually 6 or 7. Cranium with its rnuciferous system moderately 

 developed or rudimentary. Intestinal canal short. Carnivorous fishes of 

 3030 4 



