CENTRACION PHILIPPI. 183 



Aqass., 1835, Rech. poiss. foss.,3, p. 8, pi. D, fig. 11-10; Owen, 1845, Odont., pi. 10, f. 1, pi. 11. fig. 



2-4; pi. 12-13; Struver, 1864, Nov. act. Acad. Leop., 23, 32 pp., McCov, 1888, Zool. Vict., 



pi. 113. 

 Helerodonlus phillipi Dumeril, 1865, Elasin., p. 424; Macl.a.y & Macleay, 1878, Proc. Linn. soc. 



N. S. W., 3, p. 309, pi. 22-24; Waite, 1899, Mem. Austr. inus., 4, p. 30. 

 Ccstracion philippi Gunth., 1870, Cat. fishes Brit, mus., 8, p. 415 (part). 

 Cestracion phillippi Regan, 1908, Ann. mag. nat. hist., ser. 8, 1, p. 495. 



Massive and angular anteriorly, head and body nearly half of the total 

 length; head about one fourth, crown deeply concave tranversely, orbital ridges 

 strong, ending abruptly at the occiput, slightly diverging and rising backward; 

 snout elongate, blunt; caudal shorter than the head. Length of orbit about 

 one fourth of its distance from the end of the snout; eye small, lateral, at the 

 top of the skull. Spn*acle small, below the orbit and immediately behind a 

 vertical from the posterior edge. Mouth narrow, with labial folds on both jaws, 

 upper shorter, reaching half way to the narial valve; with a short cleft at the 

 angle extending behind the folds. Teeth cuspidate in the young, tricuspid in 

 large, if not too much worn, in the anterior series; molars more or less swollen 

 and widened in the larger individuals, with longitudinal keels as newly acquired, 

 or in young specimens. Symphyses of jaws more elongate than in other species, 

 near two fifths of the jaws, bringing the halves of the jaws nearly parallel for 

 that distance, thus placing the swollen molars close to their opposites between 

 the ends of the symphyses. Narial valves and nasoral grooves as in other 

 species of the genus; the valves end in thin folds at the teeth. Gill openings 

 wide, anterior three times the length of the orbit, hindmost two fifths as wide as 

 the first, three above the base of the pectoral. Dorsals moderate, upper angles 

 broadly rounded, liind margins somewhat concave, hinder angle slightly pro- 

 duced, heights about equal to length of bases. Origin of the first dorsal above 

 the middle of the base of the pectoral, base distant from origin of second dorsal, 

 twice the length. Second dorsal smaller, base twice in its distance from the 

 caudal, origin above tips of ventral fins, tip extending httle beyond the origin of 

 the anal. Anal smaller than second dorsal, origin about the width of the orbit 

 behind the end of the base of the second dorsal, base twice its length from the 

 origin of the subcaudal, end of fin subtruncate. Claspers twice as long as the 

 free portion of the ventral, stout, pointed, with a strong spine in the distal joint. 

 Scales small, with a median keel, very small and smooth on the lower surfaces. 



Light reddish brown to brown; a dark band across the orbits to the cheeks, 

 a dark band on each side from the occiput backward to a transverse bar in front 

 of the dorsal spine, thence passing down and back to the base of the ventral after 

 sending a V-shaped branch to the base of the pectoral ; these bands sometimes 



