gg PHILIPPINE POMACENTRID.-E 



lion Island ; Cebu, Cebu ; Tagbilaran, Bohol ; Zamboanga, Minda- 

 nao; and South Ubian and Tango Islands, Sulu Archipelago. 

 The species was first known in the Philippines from Bacon, 

 Sorsogon, and from San Fabian, Pangasinan, as recorded by 

 Evermann and Seale. 



This species, easily recognized by the three large dark blotches 

 on the upper parts of the body and by a large dark area around 

 the vent, ranges from the Andamans eastward throughout the 

 East Indies, New Guinea, and Micronesia, and northward to the 

 coast of China. 



POMACENTRUS MELANOCHIR Bleeker 



PLATE 12, FIG. 1 



Pomacentrus melanochir BLEEKER, Nat. Verb. Holl. Maats. Wet. 2 

 (1877) 49; Atlas Ichth. 9 (1878) pi. 408, fig. 4. 



Dorsal XIII, 10; anal II, 14; scales in lateral series 26; with 

 tubules 17 ; between lateral line and origin of dorsal 4 ; between 

 lateral line and vent 9. 



Body ovate-oblong, slightly elongate; profiles about evenly 

 arched; depth 2.5 in length; head 3.4; depth of caudal peduncle 

 6.6. Interorbital space strongly arched, wide, 3.4 in length of 

 head; maxillary as long as eye diameter, each equal to width 

 of interorbital ; snout short and rounded, 4 in head. Cleft of 

 mouth very oblique, lower jaw projecting, maxillary ending 

 posteriorly in front of orbit; teeth in two rows, compressed and 

 truncate. Suborbital and posterior edge of preopercle strongly 

 denticulate, the width of the former behind angle of mouth 

 about a third of eye diameter; opercle armed behind with two 

 flat, sharp spines. 



Scales on head extending to nostrils; orbitals and edges of 

 preopercle naked; dorsal and anal fins with a low sheath of 

 scales at base. Dorsal spines increasing in height posteriorly, 

 the last one higher than the second anal spine. Soft dorsal and 

 anal about equal in height, forming posteriorly acute angles; 

 caudal deeply forked, with the lobes pointed; ventral slightly 

 longer than pectoral, the latter extending to base of anal spines. 



Color in alcohol brownish violet, with a light vertical streak 

 on each scale ; vertical fins and ventrals blackish ; spinous dorsal 

 with darker margin; pectoral and caudal fins yellowish, the 

 former a little paler and with a large blackish blotch covering 

 its base and axil. There is an indistinct dark spot at origin of 

 lateral line. 



