Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1445 



silvery luster; a dark temporal blotch; lower jaw black within, behind 

 the front teeth; fins all dark-brownish, the pectoral, anal, and ventrals 

 quite black, with minute dark points; tip of spinous dorsal black; lining 

 of opercle dusky; peritoneum silvery. Bay of Panama, rather common 

 Types from 6 to 7 inches in length, and as they are evidently mature, this 

 species is probably one of the smallest of theSciienoid fishes. The caver- 

 nous structure of the bones of the head reaches in this species an ex- 

 treme. (Ericymba, a genus of minnows with similar cavernous head; 

 ipLj very; nvjuity, cavity.) 



Scicena ericymba, JORDAN & GILBERT, Bull. U. S. Fish Conim. 1881, 311, Bay of Panama. 



(Coll. C. H. Gilbert.) 

 Stelltferus ericymba, JORDAN & EIGENMANN, I. c., 394, 1889. 



1827. STELLIFEll MICROP8* (Steindachner). 



Head 3*-; depth 3$; eye 5 to 6; snout 4. D. X-I, 19; A. II, 8; scales 51. 

 Body moderately elongate; snout thick, blunt, convex, and protuberant; 

 head above less cavernous than usual in the genus, more so below; pre- 

 opercle (as usual in this genus) forming the arc of a circle; mouth rather 

 small, inferior, nearly horizontal; the maxillary 3 in head; premaxillaries 

 entirely below level of eye ; lower jaw cavernous ; gill rakers about x -f 16, 

 about | diameter of eye; no pores or slits at end of snout; interorbital 

 space 2f in head ; dorsal spines low, the longest If in head ; soft dorsal 

 high, the longest ray 2^ in head; second anal spine rather large, If in 

 head; pectoral 1; teeth on preopercle subequal; preorbital thick and 

 swollen, much broader than eye. Color pale, nearly plain; faint oblique 

 streaks along the rows of scales, those below lateral line running obliquely 

 upward and backward ; scales of sides with many brown dots. Length 

 3 inches. Coast of Brazil and Guiana. The specimens here described 

 (4581, M. C. Z.) collected at Para by Dr. Steindachner. (juixpog small; GOI/>, 

 eye.) 



Corvina stellifera, GUNTHER, Cat., n, 299, 1860, West Indies (not Bodianus xtellifer, 



BLOCK). 



Corvina microps, STEINDACHNER, Ichth. Not., i, 6, pi. 2, fig. 1, 1864, Guiana. 

 Stelliferus microps, JORDAN <fc EIGENMANN, I. c., 395, 1889. 



Subgenus STELLICARENS, Gilbert. 



1828. STELLIFEll ZESTOCARUS, Gilbert. 



Head 3 to 3 ; depth 2 to 2^- ; eye 3f to 3f in head ; snout 4|. Pores in 

 lateral line 47 to 50. D. XII, 19 ; A. II, 10. Body comparatively deep and 

 compressed, with narrow head, large oblique mouth, the greatest width 

 of head If to 1 in its length. Anterior profile rising in an even convex 

 curve to front of dorsal, depressed very little if at all above the orbits; 

 greatest depth under front of spinous dorsal; length of caudal peduncle 

 measured from base of last anal ray If in head; from last dorsal ray If; 

 least depth of caudal peduncle 2f in head ; head extremely soft, the bones 



* A related species, Stellifer naso, Jordan, having the eye large, and the lower teeth on 

 preorbital enlarged, occurs in Brazil. 



