124 PISCES. 



mouth small and but slightly dentated, and the body without 



scales.(l) 



Pelor. 



The entire dorsal and palatine teeth of the Scorpaense; no scales on 

 the body; 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 distinguish them from 

 all other fishes- They inhabit the Indian Ocean. (2) 



Synanceia, B1. Schn. 



The appearance of these fishes is quite as hideous as that of a Pelor; 

 their head is rough, tuberculous, uncompressed, frequently enveloped 

 in a lax and fungous skin; their pectoral rays are all branched; their 

 dorsals entire, and they have no teeth, neither in the vomer nor 

 palatines; their frightful appearance induces the fishermep of the 

 Indian Ocean, which they inhabit, to consider them as venomous.(3) 



MoNOCENTRis, Bl. Schn. — Lepisacanthus, Lacep. 



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 

 consists of an immense spine, in the angle of which a few soft and 

 almost imperceptible rays are concealed; head bulky and mailed; 

 front gibbous; mouth large; short crowded teeth (en velours ras) in 

 the jaws and palatines, but none in the vomer; eight rays in the 

 branchiae. But one species is known; the 



Mon. japonica^ Bl. Schn. pi. xxiv; Lepisacanthe japonais, La- 

 cep. Six inches long, of a silvery white. From the sea of Ja- 

 pan. (4) 



(1) It 19 the Bknn'ms torvtis of Gronov., Act. Helvet. VII, pi. iii, copied, 

 Walb., Ill, pi. 2, f. 1; or Coryphsena torva, Bl. Schn., and some new species. 



(2) Pel. obscurum, Cuv., or Scorpxna didactyh, Pall. Spic. Zool. VII, xxvi, iv; 

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

 some new species to be described in our 4th vol. 



(3) Scorpaena horrida, L., Lacep., II, xvii, 2; and not so well, Bl., 183;— the 

 Sc. bruchion, Lacep. Ill, xii, 1, or Synanceia verrucosa, BL, Schn., pi. A5;—Syn. 

 bicapillata, Lacep. II, xi, 3. 



{4:) Gasterosteus japonicus, lioutt., Harl. Mem., XX, part II, 299, or Scicena 

 japwnca,Thunh., New Stockh. Mem., XI, iii, copied Bl., Sclni., pi. xxiv. 



