Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1397 



aa'. Air bladder none ; anal spine single, weak ? back not elevated ; 

 preopercle with its membranaceous edge crenulate ; pec- 

 toral fins long, longer than ventrals. (Bottom fishes.) 



MENTICIBRHUS, 591. 

 ww. Pseudobranchiai obsolete ; body long and low; caudal pointed; pectoral 



fin elongate ; preopercle without bony serratures. 



&'. Mandible with a row of slender barbels along its inner edge; chin with- 



out large barbels. PARALONCHURUS, 592. 



bb 1 . Mandible without barbels along the inner edge. Chin with two short 



barbels ; soft dorsal with 30 to 40 rays. LONCHIUKUS, 593. 



APLODINOTIX.K : 



</(/. Lower pharyngeals v-ry larg*\ completely united, covered with coarse blunt paved 

 teeth; lower jaw included; snout with slits and pores, as in Scicena; gill rakers 

 rather short. 



c'. Lower jaw with numerous barbels along the inner edge of the 

 rami ; preopercle nearly entire. (Marine species.) 



POGONIAS, 594. 



cc 1 . Lower jaw wit bout barbels ; preopercle slightly serrate. (Fresh- 

 water species.) APLODINOTUS, 595. 



ff. Dorsal .spines close together, the first spine attached to the first interneural, and 

 from 5 to 12 of the spine-bearing interneurals wedged in between the high 

 occipital crest and the neural spine of the second vertebra on the one hand, and 

 that of the third vertebra on the other; occipital crest much elevated. Mouth 

 small, low, included; the teeth .subequal, in A'illiform bands; air bladder sim- 

 ple; preopercle with its membranaceous edge serrulate ; gill rakers short; snout 

 above premaxillary with slit and pores essentially as in Scicena,- anal fin small; 

 soft dorsal very long, of 36 to 55 rays ; vertebra) 10 + 15 = 25. EQUES, 596. 



569. SERIPHUS, Ayres. 



Seriphus, AYRES, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci., n, 1861, 80 (politus). 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with rather large, deciduous, ctenoid 

 scales. Head deep, compressed, carinated behind, depressed above the 

 eye; snout bluntish, lower jaw projecting; mouth large, oblique. Teeth 

 small, sharp, separated, in narrow bands. Gill rakers long; pseudo- 

 branchittt present; preopercle with its membranaceous edge denticulated. 

 Fins fragile, the soft parts scaly; dorsal tins well apart, the second 

 unusually small, shorter than the anal, which is unusually large; anal 

 spines 2, feeble; caudal tin lunate. Vertebrae 14 -}- 10, as in Otolithus and 

 Cynoscion. Size small. One species in the eastern Pacific, (tfspicpot, an 

 island in the Grecian Archipelago; a small winged insect; also a kind of 

 wormwood; the allusion in any case not evident.) 



1770. SERIPHUS POLITUS, Ayres. 



(QUEENFISH; WHITE CROAKER.) 



HeadSi; depth 4; eye large, 4 in head; snout projecting, 3^ in head: 

 D. VIII-I, 20; A. II, 21 or 22; scales 8-65-9. Body moderately elongate, 

 compressed; profile slightly depressed over the eyes; mouth large and 

 narrow, the lower jaw more or less projecting in the adult; premaxillary 

 anteriorly about on the level of the lower margin of the pupil; maxillary 



