Jordan and Evermanri. Fishes of North America, 1837 



2234. HELICOLEXUS DACTYLOPTERUS* (De la Roche). 

 (SERRAN IMPERIAL; FANEGAL; CARDONNIERA; SCORFANUDI FCNAL; CRABRA.) 



Head 3J; depth 2f. D. XII, 12; A. Ill, 5; lateral line 43. Body not 

 much elevated, little compressed, the tail slender. Head large, little com- 

 pressed; cheeks, opercles, and occipital region well scaled; no dermal 

 flaps any where ; auborbital stay strong. Mouth rather large, with teeth 

 as usual on jaws, voiner, and palatines; lower jaw not projecting; maxil- 

 lary extending to beyond pupil. Suborbital with a narrow raised smooth 

 ridge, which ends in a spine at th< i base of the stay; preorbital narrow, its 

 edge slightly spinous; interorbital space narrow, with 2 parallel raised 

 ridges and a deep groove. Cranial ridges short, sharp, about as in Scbas- 

 todes rosaceus; preocuhir, supraocular, postoeular, tympanic, occipital, 

 and nuchal spines present; suprascapular spines sharp ; no exoccipitals; 

 opercular spines moderate; preopercular spines sharp, the second longest. 

 Eye very large, 3 in head. Jaws naked. Gill rakers rather long and slen- 

 der. Pectoral very narrow, the rays not procurreut below nor thickened, 

 reaching anal ; ventrals small, reaching past vent; anal small and low, its 

 second spine a little stouter but not longer than third; dorsal low, little 

 emargiuate, the spines slender. Scales ctenoid, regularly arranged; no 

 accessory scales. Color delicate scarlet red, the opercle and dorsal fin 

 somewhat mottled with brownish. Deep water of the Atlantic; very 

 common in the Mediterranean; occasionally off our coast, from Narragan- 

 sett to Chesapeake bays. Here described from a specimen taken off Chesa- 

 peake Bay; a beautifully colored species. (Eu.) (da.KTvko$, finger; 

 Ttrepov, fin.) 



Scorpcena dactyloptera, DE LA ROCHE, Ann. Mas., xni, 1809, pi. 22, fig. 2, Iviga, Barcelona ; 



Risso, Ichthyol. de Nice, 186, 1810; GUNTHER, Challenger Report, Vol. I, pt. VI, 6, 1880; 



JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 679, 1883. 



Sebastes imperialis, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., iv, 336, 1829, Nice. 

 ^bastes dactylopterus, GUNTHER, Cat., in, 99, 1860. 



Scbastoplus dactylopteru*, GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Mas. Comp. Zool., x, No. 5, 214, 1883. 

 Helicolenus dactylopterus, GOODE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 249, pi. 68, fig. 244, 1896. 



2235. HELICOLEXUS MADERENSIS, Goode & Bean. 



(BOCA NEGRA; PAI DE GATO.) 



Head 3; depth 3| in total length. D. XII, 12; A. Ill, 5; P. 19; scales of 

 lateral line 29 to 30. Eye 3 to 3^ in head, not projecting above profile. 

 Interorbital space very deeply concave, strongly ribbed, scarcely diameter 

 of eye. Snout scarcely equal to eye. Suborbital stay not very prominent, 



* The following points are taken from Goode & Bean's description of Helicolenus dac- 

 tylopterus: 



"Back arcuate ; head 2 ; 28 to 30 tubes, about 50 scales ; dorsal fin inserted above inner 

 upper angle of opercular flap; length of spinous portion considerably less than head; 

 third spine longest, thence a gradual decrease to eleventh ; height of soft dorsal consid- 

 erably more than highest spine, the rays projecting far beyond the membrane; base of 

 pectoral almost equal to longest rays, which reach vent; first 2 rays simple, following 

 9 branched, last 8 simple, slender, with nearly i the length of the rays free from mem- 

 brane; color of back extending in transverse baiids upon sides," 



