ACANTI10PTERYGIANS. 107 



In a second division the body is naked ; some of these also have a free 

 ray under the pectoral*, and others are without themf. 



Agriopus 



Are deficient of the suborbital spine; the dorsal still higher than in 

 Apistes, and reaching between the eyes; their neck is elevated, muzzle nar- 

 rowed, mouth small and but slightly dentated, and the body without 

 scales j. 



Pelor. 



The Pelors, with the entire dorsal and palatine teeth of the Scorpions, 

 have no scales on the body ; they have two free rays under the pectoral ; 

 anterior part of the head flattened; eyes proximate, dorsal spines very 

 high, and almost free ; the suborbital spine of Apistes is wanting, and 

 their fantastic shape and monstrous aspect are alone sufficient to distin- 

 guish them from all other fishes. They inhabit the Indian Ocean §. 



Synanceia, Bl. Schn., 



Have their forms not less hideous than the Pelors; their head is rough, 

 tuberculous, uncompressed, frequently enveloped in a lax and fungous skin ; 

 their pectoral rays are all branched; their dorsals are entire, and they 

 have no teeth, either in the vomer or palatines; their frightful appearance 

 induces the fishermen of the Indian Ocean, which they inhabit, to consi- 

 der them as venomous ||. 



Lepisacanthes, Lacep. — Monocentris, Bl. Schn., 



Constitute a singular genus; the body is short, thick, and completely 

 mailed with enormous angular, rough, and carinated scales ; four or five 

 stout free spines supply the place of the first dorsal; each ventral con- 

 sists of an immense spine, in the angle of which some soft and almost im- 

 perceptible rays are concealed; head bulky and mailed; front gibbous; 

 mouth large; teeth in the jaws and palatines like the pile on velvet, but 

 none in the vomer; eight rays in the branchiae. But one species is known, 

 from the Japanese Sea, 



Man. japonica, Bl. Schn. pi. xxiv; Lepisacanthe japonais, Lacep. 

 Six inches long, of a silvery white ^[. 



IV, iii, 2, a figure intitled Teenianote large rale, but one which has nothing in com- 

 mon with the T. large raie, of the text, IV, 303 and 304, which is a Malacanthus, 

 and the same that is represented, III, xxviii, 2, under the name of Labre large raie; 

 — Perca cottoides, L., Mus. Ad. Fred. II, p. 84. 



* Ap. minus, Cuv., Russel, 159; — Sc. monodactyle, Bl. Schn. 



t The species are new, and described, as well as others of the preceding subdivi- 

 sions, in our fourth volume of Iethyology. 



\ It is the Blenvius torvus of Gronov. Act. Helvet. VII, pi. iii, copied, Walb. Ill, 

 pi. 2, f. 1 ; or Coryphtena torva, 151. Schn., and some new species. 



§ Pel. obscurum, Cuv., or Scorpcrna diductyla, Pall. Spic. Zool. VII, xxvi, iv; — . 

 Seb. Ill, xxviii, 3, or Trigla rubicunda, Hornstedt, Stockhol. Mem. IX, iii, and some 

 new species described in our fourth volume of Iethyology. 



|| Scorpana horrida, L., Lacep. II, xvii, 2; and not so well, Bl. 83; — the Sc. 

 brachion, Lacep. Ill, xii, 1, or Syananceia verrucosa, Bl. Schn. pi. 4j; — Syn. bica- 

 pillala, Lacep. II, xi, 3. 



If Gasterostem japonicus, Houtt. Ilarl. Mem. XX, part II, 299, or Sciccna japonica, 

 Tliunb. New Stockh. Mem. XI, iii, copied Bl. Schn. pi. xxiv. 



