340 The Bass and their Relatives 
the Mediterranean, Dentex dentex. Very many related species 
occur in the old world, the prettily colored Nemipterus virgatus, 
the Itoyori of Japan being one of the best known. Another 
interesting fish is Aphareus furcatus, a handsome, swift fish of 
the open seas occasionally taken in Japan and the East Indies. 
Glaucosoma burgeri is a large snapper of Japan, and a related 
species, Glaucosoma hebraicum, is one of the ‘‘jewfishes”’ of 
Australia. Numerous fossil forms referred to Dentex occur in 
the Eocene of Monte Bolca, as also a fish called Ctenodentex 
lackeniensis from the Eocene of Belgium. 
The Grunts: Hamulide.— The large family of Hemulide, 
known in America as grunters or roncos, is represented with the 
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Fic. 277.—Grunt, Hamulon plumieri (Bloch). Charleston, 8. C. 
snappers in all tropical seas. The common names (Spanish, 
roncar, to grunt or snore) refer to the noise made either with 
their large pharyngeal teeth or with the complex air-bladder. 
These fishes differ from the Lutianine mainly in the feebler 
detention, there being no canines and no teeth on the vomer. 
Most of the American species belong to the genus Hemulon 
or red-mouth grunts, so called from the dash of scarlet at the 
corner of the mouth. Hemulon plumieri, the common grunt, or 
ronco arard, is the most abundant species, known by the 
narrow blue stripes across the head. In the yellow grunt, 
ronco amarillo (He@mulon scturus), these stripes cross the whole 
