452 SERRANID.E. 



2. LATES. 



Cuvier & Valenciennes, HIsfc. Poiss. ii. p. 88 (1828); Giinther, Cat. Fish. i. p. 67 (1859); 

 Boulenger, Cat. Fish. i. p. 361 (1895), and Poiss. Bass. Congo, p. 380 (1901). 



Body compressed ; scales moderate or small, finely denticulate ; lateral line complete, 

 extending on the caudal fin. Mouth large ; maxillary exposed, with supplemental 

 bone ; villiform teeth in jaws and on vomer, palatines, and ectopterygoids ; no teeth 

 on the tongue. Head scaly • praeoperculum serrated ; operculum ending in a spine. 

 Two dorsal fins, subequal in length and connected at the base, w 7 ith VII- VIII, I-II 

 10-14 rays. Anal fin short, with III 8-9 rays. Dorsal and anal fins moving in a 

 more or less distinct scaly sheath. Pectoral fin short, symmetrical, rounded. A 

 produced pointed scale at the base of the ventral fin. Vertebrae 25 (12 + 13). 



Four species are known : one from the mouths of the rivers and coasts of South- 

 eastern Asia and North Australia, one from the Nile. Senegal, Niger, and Congo, and 

 two from Lake Tanganyika. 



1. LATES N1LQT1CUS. 

 (Plates LXXXIV. and LXXXV.) 



Perca nilotica, Linnaeus, in Hasselquist, Reise Falsest, p. 404 (1762), and Syst. Nat. i. p. 483 (1766); 



Sonnini, Voy. Egypte, ii. p. 292, pi. xxii. fig. 3 (1799). 

 Centropomus niloiicus, Lacepede, Hist. Poiss. iv. p. 277 (1802). 

 Perca latus, I. Geoffroy, Descr. Egypt, Poiss. p. 280, pi. ix. fig. 1 (1827). 

 Pates niloticus, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Poiss. ii. p. 89 (1828), and iii. p. 490 (1829) ; Giinther, 



Cat. Fish. i. p. 67 (1859), and Petherick's Trav. ii. p. 207 (1869) ; Steindachner, Sitzb. Ak. 



Wien, lx. i. 1869, p. 672, pi. i. ; Boulenger, Cat. Fish. i. p. 362 (1895) ; Pfeffer, Thierw. O.- 



Afr., Fische, p. 2, fig. (1896) ; Boulenger, Poiss. Bass. Congo, p. 381 (1901) ; Lortet & 



Gaillard, Arch. Mus. Lyon, viii. 1903, p. 188, figs. 



Depth of body twice and a half to four times in the total length, length of head twice 

 and three-fourths to three and a half times ; shape very variable, the upper outline of 

 the head usually more or less concave. Snout rounded, as long as or a little longer 

 than the eye (much longer in very large specimens) ; lower jaw projecting ; diameter 

 of the eye four (young) to seven times in the length of the head, four-fifths to once 

 and one-third in interorbital width; maxillary extending to below the posterior border 

 of the eye or beyond, the width of its distal extremity at least three-fourths the 

 diameter of the eye ; prae- and suborbitals finely serrated ; cheek, gill-cover, and 



