BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
42fi 
Genus 194. SPHEROIDES Lacepede.—The Swell-fishes. 
Body oblong or elongate; skin variously prickly or smooth, sometimes with cirri; a single, short, 
simple, nasal tube on each side, with 2 rather large openings near its tip, the tube sometimes reduced 
to a mere rim; dorsal and anal tins of 6 to 15 rays each; caudal truncate, rounded or concave; vertebra* 
18 to 21; frontal bones expanded sidewise and forming the lateral roof of the orbit, the postfrontals 
limited to the posterior portions. Species very numerous in warm seas. The group contains 2 or 3 
strongly marked subgenera which would lie regarded as distinct genera if only extremes were 
considered; but the transition is very gradual from Lagocephalus, with elongate body, silvery skin, 
prominent lateral fold, long falcate dorsal and anal, with forked caudal, to typical Spheroides, with 
short fins and the form of Tetraodon. 
Crayracion Klein, Missus II, 18, 1742 (s pmgleri)-, nonbinomial. 
l,rs SpMmhta LnccpMc, Hist. Nat. Poiss. II, 22, 1800 (French name only: tuberculi). 
Spheroides lmmeril, Zool. Analytique. 108, 1800 (tuberculalMs =spengleri, from a drawing showing a front view). 
Orbidus Rafinesque, Anal. Nat., ISIS, fO (substitute for fcs spheroides LacrpMe). 
Sphxroidcs LacrpMe, Pilot Ed., Hist. Nat. Poiss.. VI, 1831, 279 (tuberculatus^spengleri). 
Cirrhisomus Swainson, Class. Fishes, II, 194 and 328, 1839 ( spcnglcri). 
chrilirhthns Miiller, Abhandl. Alcad. Wiss. Berlin, 1839 (1841), 252 (tcstudinais). 
Unlacanthm Gronow, Syst. Nat., Ed. Gray, 23, 1851 (includes all Tetraodon!id# and DMontida )-, name preoccupied. 
.!nddmruus Kaup MS., Richardson, Voy. Herald, 156,162, 1854 ( sjiengleri , etc.). 
(lerieion Bibron, Revvie de Zool., 1855, 279 (maculdtum ). 
CdtQphrynchus Bibron, 1. c. ( lampris ). 
Les Promeeocephales ( Promecnrtphalus) Bibron, 1. c. ( argentatus ). 
Apsiccphalits Hollard, Etudes sur les Gymnodontes, in Ann. Sci. Nat. (4th Srr. ), VIII, 1857, 324 (lestudineus, etc.). 
Liosaccus Gunther, Cat., VIII, 287, 1870 ( cutaneus ). 
349. Spheroides florealis (Cope). 
[). S; A. 7; eye 4.25 times in head, 2.75 in muzzle; head 3.66 in total length; anal fin behind 
dorsal, both subfalcate, narrow; caudal long, truncate or slightly concave; interorbital region concave, 
profile regularly descending; belly to vent and anterior part of sides with strong distant bristles, back 
to end nf pectoral fin and head above to nares, with distant weaker bristles; no dermal appendages; a 
groove from the orbit to. the tail on each side of the back, which is nearly connected by a medially 
interrupted cross groove at the occipital crest; a groove concentric with and within the superciliary 
margin extending to the preocular region and returning, but sending also a curved branch round the 
front of each nostril. 
Color, below immaculate white, a yellowish band on the side; above reddish brown, ground 
reduced to narrow lines by the innumerable small light (? white) spots with a ring of smaller spots 
around each, over the upper regions of the head and body. Caudal fin delicately cross-barred; other 
fins unicolored. Length 5 inches. 
Two specimens from the Sandwich Islands, obtained by I)r. J. K. Townsend 20 years ago. This 
species is allied to 8. alboplumbeus Richn., but differs in the fewer fin rays as well as the color (Cope). 
1 n our collection from Hilo are 8 young puffers, from three-quarters to an inch in length, which 
we identify with this species of Cope’s, In so far as can be determined from such small examples 
they agree perfectly with Cope’s description and with the figure of his type, given by Fowler, having 
the few fin rays, slender body, and coloration of S. florealis, and we have no doubt they are the young 
of that species. 
Ti’lni'hm florealis Ci.pe, Trans. Am. Philos. Sue., XIV, 1871, 479, Hawaiian Islands (Types, Nos. 1109 and 1110, Ac. Nnl. 
Sri. Phils..). 
SphernifU*florndis, Fowler, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sri. Phila. 1900, 511, pi. xx, lit;. 1 (Hawaiian Islands; Cope’s types). 
Genus 195. TETRAODON Linnaeus. 
Body rather robust, skin usually more or less prickly; nostril on each side with a tentacle, bifid 
to the base, its tips without opening, the branches of the large olfactory nerve ending in cup-like 
depressions along the inner edges of the 2 flattish lobes; dorsal and anal fins rounded, each of 7 to 14 
