Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1723 



ter; the position of these spots appears to have no relation to the shape 

 of the plates of the carapace; ventral surface lighter and spotless; epi- 

 dermis often abraded, leaving the shell uniform tawny white; lips, 

 bases of the tins, and tail stem brown like, the ground color of the body. 

 In dried specimens the epidermis dries and loses its color, and the shell 

 shows through with a lighter shade. Giinther states that the lips, roots 

 of the fins, root of the tail, and tip of the caudal are black. (Goode.) 

 Length 10$ inches. Young in life, light olive, covered everywhere above 

 and below with round darker spots of greenish blue about as large as 

 pupil; fins plain; caudal peduncle with a few spots. West Indies, north 

 to the Bermudas, Key West, and Pensacola; very common in the Tropics; 

 a sluggish fish living on the bottoms about reefs, feeding on minute ani- 

 mals, (triqueler, three-angled.) 



Ostracion polyodon inermis triqueter, LINNAEUS, Museum Adolphi-Frederici, I, 60, 1754, 



India. 

 Ostracion triqueter, LINN^US, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, 330, 1758, India ; after Mus. Ad. Fr. ; GUN- 



THER, Cat., vm, 256,1870; GOODE, Proc.U. S. Nat. Mus. 1879,271; JORDAN'& GILBERT, 



Synopsis, 965, 1883. 

 Ostracion* concatenates, BLOCK, Ichthyol., pi. 131, 1785, Martinique ; on a painting by 



PLUMIEK. 



Subgenus CHAPINUS, Jordan & Evermann. 



2140. LACTOPHRYS BICAUDALIS (Linnaeus). 

 (CHAPiN; SPOTTED TRUNK-FISH.) 



D. 10; A. 10; P. 12. Ostracions with trigonal carapace and with flat 

 prominent spine on each ventral ridge. Breadth of body leas than | its 

 length without caudal. Space between eyes concave. From the median 

 dorsal line the sides of the back descend rapily, curving outward slightly. 

 Caudal fin rounded. Color yellowish, with numerous small, round, brown 

 spots on carapace, tail, and caudal fin. Length 16 inches. West Indies, 

 generally common, from Cuba to Ascension Island; not yet recorded from 

 Florida, (bicaudalis, two-tailed; that is, with 2 spines below the tail 

 "spinis subcaudalibus 2.") 



Ostracion triangulatus tuberculis hexayonis radiatis, etc., ARTEDI, Genera, 57, 1738, India. 



Ostracion bicaudalis, LINN^US, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 330, 1758, India ; after ARTEDI; GUNTHER, 



Cat., vm. 257, 1870 ; POEY, Kepertorio, n, 442 ; GOODE, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1879, 274. 



Subgenus LACTOPHRYS. 

 2141. LACTOPHRYS TRIGONUS (Linnaeus). 

 (COMMON TRUNK-PISH; CHAPIN; SHELLFISH.) 



Head 4 ; height of sides 2. D. 10 ; A. 10. Body rather sharply 3-angled ; 

 no spine before eye. Each ventral ridge with a large flat spine; dorsal 

 ridge high and sharply compressed, descending rather rapidly forward, and 

 ending opposite posterior margin of orbit ; carapace open behind the dorsal 



* As Bloch says distinctly that his account of Ostracion concatenate is based on a figure 

 by Plumier, the name should apparently not be used for an East Indian species, but is 

 probably a synonym of triqueter. 



