1708 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Size large. East Indies; once doubtfully recorded from Acapulco. Very 

 close to Canthidermis maculatus, if really different. It has still fewer fin 

 rays if the figure of Bleeker and the description of Lay & Bennett can be 

 trusted. (Named for Francis Willughby, the learned author of Historia 

 Piscium, in 1686.) 

 Batistes willughleii, LAY & BENNETT,* Zoology of Beechey's Voyage, 68, pi. 21, fig. 2, 



1839, Acapulco. 

 ? Batistes maculatus, BLEEKER, Atlas Ind., pi. 218, fig. 4, 1862, East Indies ; not of BLOCK. 



670. XANTHICHTHYS, Kaup. 



Xanthitihthyst (KAUP) RICHABDSON, Encyclopedia Britanuica, Ed. xn, 313, 1856 (curassa- 



vicus) . 



Body oblong, covered with moderate-sized smoothish scales, those on 

 posterior part of body usually with blunt keels ; no enlarged scutes behind 

 gill opening; no lateral line, or only a trace at the shoulder; a groove 

 before eye; 3 to 5 narrow grooves on the cheek. Caudal peduncle deeper 

 than broad; dorsal spines comparatively small, 2 only; soft dorsal and 

 anal moderately elevated, the tips acute ; caudal lunate ; mouth small, 

 placed high, the teeth as in Balistes; the lower jaw much projecting; 

 ventral flaps undeveloped, immovable, and scaled- over. Chiefly American ; 

 2 species known ; allied to Canthidermis, but differing in several regards, 

 especially in the grooved cheeks, projecting chin, and fewer dorsal spines. 

 (arQ6s, yellow; zftOi'S, fish, which is not true of any species; possibly 

 XantUum, the cocklebur; ^0t>, fish, was intended.) 



* The following is the full text of the description of Lay & Bennett : 

 14 Bal. oblong o-ovalis, infra confertim albido guttatus; squamis lateralibus posticisque 

 subspinosis; pinuis dorsali sucunda aualique elevatis, triangularibus; caudali triloba. 

 D.3,20; P. 14; V. ; A. 17 ; C. 12, Plate xxi, fig. 2. Guaperva longa, etc, WILL., Ichth. 

 App., p. 21, tab. 1', 20 ; Ray, Syn. Pise., p. 48. Prickle or longest File-fish, Grew, Rav., p. 113, 

 tab. 7. Hab. in Oceano Pacifico, prope Acapulco. A specimen of this fish was preserved 

 by Captain Belcher, R. N., and presented by him to the Museum of the Zoological Society. 

 Its form is more elongated than is usual among its congeners, its height being less than 

 of its total length. Its surface, as in other species of Balistes, is divided into compart- 

 ments, of which those behind the gill openings on each side are not evidently larger than 

 the adjoining ones, their distinction in this part being very faintly marked'; each of the 

 compartments posterior to the pectoral fins, excepting those of the back and belly, is fur- 

 nished, toward its anterior part, with a short whitish, somewhat spinous, tubercle, directed 

 backwards. On the tail these tubercles form 9 rows, but none of them is sufficiently 



the 

 iich 



, .f the 



orbit the distance is If inches; the diameter of the orbit, of an inch; the anterior ray 

 of the first dorsal fin, 1 inch in length, is placed 1 inch behind the orbit; length of the 

 first dorsal, 1 inch; between it and the second dorsal, 1| inches; length of second dorsal, 

 2 inches, that of its fourth ray being 2 inches ; from its termination to the base of the 

 caudal, 1| inches; length of the outer ray of the caudal, 2 inches, of the middle rays, If; 

 from the base of the caudal to the anal fin, 1| inches; base of the anal fin, 1| inches, its 

 fourth ray being 2 inches in length ; hence to the ventral, which is of an inch in length, 

 1| inches. The pectoral fins are moderate, 1 inch in length by in their greatest breadth. 

 The greatest height is above the ventral fin; it is here 3J inches; the depth across the 

 tail is 1 inch. The only distinct mention of this fish which we have met is contained in 

 the works of Willughby, Ray, and Grew, whose several figures and descriptions rest all 

 apparently on a single specimen, existing in their time in the Museum of the Royal 

 society. Of the identity of our species with theirs it is almost impossible to entertain a 

 u n i- synonyms quoted from them are referred by Bloch and succeeding writers to 

 the Balutes maculatus, Bloch, a species differing in various respects, and particularly by 

 its greater comparative breadth, its longer dorsal and anal fins, and the larger number of 

 rays in those fins." (Lay & Bennett.) 



IXanthichthys, Kaup : Marked furrows on the face; 2 rays in the first dorsal; no shields 

 behind the gill opening ; 1 species, X. curassavicus. (Richardson, I c.) 



