SPAROID FISHES OF AMERICA AND EUROPE. 455 
ANALYSIS OF AMERICAN SPECIES OF APSILUS. 
a. Body rather deep (depth, 23 in length); head large, 3 in body. D.x, 10; A, 111, 8; 
scales small, regularly arranged, 8-60-16; those above lateral line in series parallel 
with the lateral line; gill-rakers numerous, about 17 on lower part of arch; 
mouth rather small, the canines moderate; tongue toothless; vomerine teeth in 
a /\-shaped patch; preorbital narrow ; caudal well forked; anal spines graduated ; 
last rays of anal slightly produced, the lobes pointed; color, dusky violet, with- 
MC e GS DIE CUsOL AKON OS 8S yo ale ree e cao oo emo tide Sensisisielacte hue ins = DENTATUS, 25. 
25. APSILUS DENTATUS. (Arnillo.) 
Apsilus dentatus Guichenot, in Ramon de la Sagra, Hist. Cuba, Poiss., 29, pl. 1, f. 2, 
1845 (Havana). 
Mesoprion dentatus, Giinther, 1, 188, 1859 (Jamaica). 
Tropidinius dentatus, Jordan & Swain, l. ¢. 
Mesoprion arnillo Poey, Mem. 1, 154, 1860 (Cuba). 
Tropidinius arnillo, (Gill Mss.), Poey, Synopsis, 296, 1868 (Cuba); Poey, Enumeratio, 
30, 1875. 
Lutjanus arnillus, Cope, Trans. Am. Philos. Soc. 1869, 470 (St. Croix). 
Habitat: West Indies. 
Etymology: Dentatus, toothed. 
This beautiful little fish is rather common in the markets of Havana, 
where it is known as arnillo. The name dentatus is set aside by Poey 
in favor of his later name arnillo, because the species is a Lutjanus 
rather than an Apsilus, and all the Lutjani are dentate. Such reasons 
are not sufficient to warrant interference with the law of priority. The 
species, however, is a genuine Apsilus, and has perhaps stronger teeth 
than its congener fuscus. 
VI. APRION. 
Aprion Cuv. & Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., v1, 1830, 545 (virescens). 
? Chetopterus Temminck & Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Poiss., 78, 1850 (dubius). 
Pristipomoides Bleeker, Natuurk. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind., 1852, 111, 574 (typus). 
Platyinius Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1865, 237 (vorax—=macerophthalmus). - 
? Sparopsis Kner, Fische Mus. Godefttroy, 1868, 303 (elongatus). 
Type: Aprion virescens Cuy. &. Val. 
Etymology: a privative; zpfwy, a saw. 
The superficial characters separating Aprion from Lutjanus are not 
very important, but the structure of the upper part of the cranium (in 
the species examined, macrophthalmus and virescens) differs widely from 
that of Lutjanus, Ocyurus, Rhomboplites, and Apsilus, closely resembling 
that of Htelis, with which genus Aprion has very near affinities. 
The American species (macrophthalmus) has been made by Dr. Gill 
the type of a genus Platyinius, regarded as distinct from Aprion. An 
examination of Aprion virescens Shows that our species has the same form 
of the skull, differing chiefly in the specific characters of deeper body, 
weaker teeth, and narrower preorbital. It is strange that so excellent a 
naturalist as Dr. Klunzinger should regard Aprion merely as a subgenus 
under Centropristis (Fische des Rothen Meers, p. 16). 
