244 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Color in life, scales below lateral line pale silvery with a purplish tinge; margin of scales on middle 
of body and on the upper part of opercle greenish yellow, those on hack darker, with margin blackish 
yellow; belly pale, margin of scales on belly darkish; a blackish band on nape; head and snout pur¬ 
plish gray; cheek with a dark dirty purplish blotch tinged with yellow; lips darkish yellow; inside of 
mouth reddish, spinous dorsal pale purplish silvery, margin of the membranes with a wide deep 
cardinal stripe; soft dorsal blackish claret, rays paler; caudal dirty claret, somewhat paler than soft 
dorsal, rays paler, margin reddish; anal same as soft dorsal, spines dark reddish, black blotches at 
root of third to sixth membrane inclusive; pectoral pale reddish, axil black; ventrals very pale pur¬ 
plish, tips darkish; iris silvery-yellow, the upper border blackish silvery, this border with a deep 
cardinal border ventrally; root of pieudobranchise purple. 
A smaller example (No. 03241), 9 inches long, from Honolulu, showed the following colors in life: 
Olive-gray, silvery below, each scale above with a bluish white center; traces of 4 narrow, whitish, 
yellowish cross-bars on back; one at nape, one under first dorsal spines, one under last dorsal spines, 
and one under last dorsal rays; head paler and more yellowish; a black spot on upper part of eye; 
inside of jaws bright red; spinous dorsal dirty gray, the pale band of back extending on it; soft dorsal 
with a large black central blotch, the last rays reddish white; caudal reddish gray, the rays mostly 
grayish, the membranes deep red; anal gray, blackish mesially, the rays tipped with dirty red; 
ventrals whitish, tipped with dirty red; pectoral light rusty red, the color fading on lower rays; 
a small black axillary spot with yellowish shade below it. Smaller examples show yellowish on fins 
and head rather than red; a dusky bar on cheek below eye; pale bars more distinct, the interspaces 
more clearly black. 
Color in alcohol, grayish brown above, lighter below, margin of scales darker; top of head and 
cheek darker brown; a black blotch on upper edge of the yellow iris; spinous dorsal pale brown with 
a darker blotch on the anterior part of. each membrane; membrane of soft dorsal, anal, and caudal 
dark; pectoral pale, black at axis; ventrals pale, tipped with dark brownish. 
The above description based chiefly upon (No. 04140), a specimen 20.5 inches long from Hoopuloa, 
Hawaii. 
Our collection contains 22 specimens 5 to 20 inches long, the localities represented being Hon¬ 
olulu, and Kailua and Hoopuloa, Hawaii. 
This fish reaches a length of about 22 inches. It is fairly abundant and highly prized as a food- 
fish, always commanding a high price. It has a very wide distribution among the Pacific islands. 
Sdsaia grandomlU Forskkl, Descript. Animal., 53, 1775, Djidda. 
Lethrinus latidens Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., Vi, 310. 1.330. New Guinea. 
Monotaxis indica Bennett, Life ni Baffles. Cat. Fish. Sumatra, 033,1830, Sumatra. 
Pagrus heterodon Bleeker, Bijdr. Ichth. Halmahera, Nat. Ned. Ind., VI, 51.1854, Sindangole. 
Spluerodonlatidens, Kner, Novara, 83, pi. 4, fig. 1,1865 (Australia). 
3 phxrodon grandocutis, Gunther, Fische dor Siidsee, IT, 67, 1874 (Sandwich Islands). 
Monotaxis grandoculis, Bleeker, Atlas, VIII, 105, pi. 299, fig. 1, 1876 (Sumatra, Batu, Celebes, Halmahera, Obimajor, 
Amboyna). 
Sphxrodon heterodon, Bleeker, Atlas, VIII, pi. 299,1876 (name on plate). 
Sparisomus unicolor, Fowler, Proe. Ae. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1900, 602 ( Honolulu); not of Quoy & Gaimard. 
Monotaxis grandoculis, Jenkins, Bull. U.S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Sept. 23, 1903),453 (Honolulu); Snyder, op. cit. (Jan. 19. 
1901), 527 (Honolulu). 
Family LX1V. M/ENID.4L — The Picarels. 
Body oblong or elongate, covered with moderate or small ciliated scales; mouth moderate or small, 
extremely protractile, ttie spines of the premaxillaries extending backward to the occiput; teetli small 
or wanting, all pointed; no incisors or molars; dorsal continuous or divided, the spines very slender; 
preoperele entire; intestine short, with few pyloric oceca. Carnivorous shore-fishes, chiefly of the Old 
World. In the form of the mouth they present analogies to the Gerridse, in other regards they closely 
resemble the Hxmulidx. Genera 4 or 5; species about 25. 
Genus 136. ERYTHRICHTHYS Temminck & Schlegel. 
Body elongate; caudal peduncle long; snout rather sharply conic; mouth very protractile, the 
processes of the intermaxillaries extending to occiput; dorsal litis 2, scarcely, if at all, connected, the 
spines all slender and feeble; no detached dorsal spines; caudal widely forked, the lobes long and 
