330 The Bass and their Relatives 
some, and excellent as food. Hemtanthtas vivanus, known 
only from the spewings of the red snapper (Lutianus aya) at 
Pensacola, is one of the most brilliant species, red, with golden 
streaks. The genus Plesiops consists of small fishes almost 
black in color, with blue spots and other markings, abounding 
about the coral reefs. In this genus the lateral line is inter- 
rupted and there is some indication of affinity with the Opzs- 
thognathide. 
In the soapfishes (Rypttcus) the supplementa lmaxillary 
appears again, but in these forms the dorsal fin is reduced to 
two or three spines and there are none in the anal. Rypticus 
saponaceus, so called from the smooth or soapy scales, is the 
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Fic. 265.—Soapfish, Rypticus bistrispinus (Mitchill). Virginia. 
best known of the numerous species, which all belong to trop- 
ical America. Grammitstes, with eight dorsal spines, is a related 
form in Polynesia, bright yellow, with numerous black stripes. 
Numerous species referred to the Serranide occur in the Eocene 
and Miocene rocks. Some are related to Epinephelus, others to 
Roccus and Lates. In the Tertiary lignite of Brazil is a species 
of Percichthys, Percichthys antiquus, with Properca beanmontt, 
which seem to be a primitive form of the bass, allied to 
Dicentrarchus. Prolates heberti of the Cretaceous, one of the 
earliest of the series, has the caudal rounded and is apparently 
allied to Lates, as is also the heavily armed Acanus regley- 
stanus of the Oligocene. Smerdis minutus, a small fish from the 
Oligocene, is also related to Lates, which genus with Roccus and 
Dicentrarchus must represent the most primitive of existing 
members of this family. Of both Smerdis and Dicentrarchus 
(Labrax) numerous species are recorded, mostly from the Mio- 
cene of Europe. 
