NO. 1875. THE JAPANESE SPARID^— JORDAN AND THOMPSON. 589 



18. Genus GIRELLA Gray. 



Girella Gray, 111. Ind. Zool., about 1835 (punctata). 



Melanichthys Temminck and Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, 1844, p. 75 (melanichthys) . 



Camarina Ayres, Proc. Cal, Acad. Sci., 1860, p. 81 {nigricans). 



Type. — Girella 'punctata Gray. 



Body oblong-ovate, compressed, covered with rather large scales. 

 Mouth small, with a series of tricuspid, movable incisors, behind 

 which is a broad band of similar smaller ones; no molar teeth; no 

 teeth on vomer or tongue; lower pharyngeal teeth slender. Cheeks 

 with very small scales ; opercles and top of head chiefly naked. Gill 

 rakers slender. Dorsal fin rather low, with about 14 spines, on the 

 bases of which the scales extend, forming an imperfect sheath; no 

 groove at base of dorsal; no procumbent dorsal spine; anal spmes 

 small, graduated; caudal lunate. Air bladder divided mto 2 posterior 

 horns. Pyloric cceca numerous; intestinal canal elongate; perito- 

 neum black. Vertebrae 11 + 16 or 17 = 27 or 28. Herbivorous. 

 Pacific Ocean. This genus contains several species found on the 

 east coast of Asia and one characteristic of the rocky shores of 

 California. They are herbivorous fishes, feeding on seaweeds. 



(From the French "Girelle," which is a derivative of Julis, and is 

 applied to smaller Labroids.) 



Key to species. 



a*. Dorsal rays XV, 13; anal rays III, 12; scales about 53; a dark spot on each scale on 

 sides, these forming lengthwise stripes; no dark opercular flap; no pale vertical 



band punctata, 30. 



a-. Dorsal rays XIV, 14. 



6'. Scales about 50; scales with dark edges; opercular flap pale; young with a 

 whitish vertical bar at the shoulder; anal rays III, 11; lower half of opercle 



scaled mezina, 31. 



b"^. Scales about 62; scales all dark; sides without longitudinal streaks of spots; no 

 pale bar at shoulder; anal rays III, 13; lower half of opercle scaleless. 



melanichthys, 32. 

 30. GIRELLA PUNCTATA Gray. 



MEJINA. 



Girella punctata Gray, 111. Ind. Zool., 1830-1835, pi. 98, fig. 34 (Canton). 



Crenidens punctatus Richardson, Ichth. China and Japan, 1842, p. 242 (Canton), 

 (dorsal rays XV, 14). 



Girella punctata Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., vol. 1, 1859, p. 427 (Canton and 

 Japanese Seas), (not synonymy). — Steindachner and Doderlein, Beitr. 

 Fische Japans, II, Denkschr. kais. Akad. Wiss. Wien., 1883, p. 21 (Tokyo). — ■ 

 Nystrom, K. Svenska. Vet. Akad., vol. 13, Afd. 4, No. 4, 1887, p. 15 

 (Nagasaki). — Jordan and Snyder, Check List, Ann. Zool. Jap., vol. 3, pts. 

 2 and 3, 1901, p. 80 (Yokohama). — Ishikawa, Prel. Cat. Tokyo Imp. Mus., 

 vol. 1, 1897, p. 53.— Jordan and Starks, U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 32, 1907, p. 497, 

 fig. 5 (Wakanoura, Tokyo, Yokohama, Nagasaki, Misaki, and Tsuruga). 



Habitat. — Coasts of southern Japan and China. 



