218 Percesoces and Rhegnopteri 
side Labidesthes sicculus, which swarms in clear streams from 
Lake Ontario to Texas. This species, three to four inches 
long, has the snout produced and a very bright silvery stripe 
along the side. Large and small species of silversides occur 
Fic. 172.—Blue Smelt or Pez del Rey, Atherinopsis californtensis Girard. 
San Diego. 
in the sea along the California coast, where they are known 
familiarly as ‘“‘blue smelt”’ or “‘Peixe Re.’’ The most impor- 
tant of these and the largest member of the family, reaching 
a length of eighteen inches, is Atherinopsis californiensts, an 
important food-fish throughout California, everywhere wrongly 
known as smelt. Atherinops affinis is much like it, but has 
S 
Fic. 173.—Flower of the waves, Iso flos-maris, Jordan & Starks. Enoshima, 
Japan. 
Y-shaped teeth. Iso flos-marits, called Nami-no-hana, or 
flower of the surf, is a shining little fish with belly sharp like 
that of a herring. It lives in the surf on the coast of Japan. 
Melanotema migrans of Australia (family Melanotentide) has 
the lateral band jet-black, as has also Melantris balsanus of the 
rivers of southern Mexico. Atherinosoma vorax of Australia has 
strong teeth like those of a barracuda. 
Fossil species of Atherina occur in the Italian Eocene, the 
best known being Atherina macrocephala. Another species, 
Khamphognathus paralepoides, allied to Menidia, occurs in the 
Eocene of Monte Bolca. 
