148 
MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
respective developing components but differ somewhat in shape from those of 
adults. The cleithrum bones are, at this stage, bluntly rounded, massive 
processes on the posterior of the skull. They lack the sharp, internal, bony, 
spinous projection and its surrounding, fleshy, vent rally fringed, humeral flap 
Text-fig. 6. Post-larva of tliq Stargazer, I chtliy scopus lebeclc (Bl. & Selin.). 
From a specimen 15.4 mm. long. 
which is a noticeable and unusual structure located above the pectoral fins of 
adult I chthy scopus. The pectoral fin is relatively larger in postlarvae than in 
adults. 
The pigmentation is totally unlike that of adults. The postlarval body 
completely lacks the canary yellow ground coloration with its superimposed 
chocolate brown, reticulate pattern on the dorsal part of the back, and the 
finer mottling on the head. Posterior to the line joining the origins of the 
second dorsal and anal fins, the body is quite immaculate as are likewise the 
soft dorsal, anal and caudal fins. During life, this portion of the body is quite 
transparent and contrasts with the blackness of the head and the dark band of 
pigment which surrounds the body in the region between the head and the 
origins of the soft dorsal and anal fins. The pectoral fin is also darkly pigmented 
on the rays and membranes, particularly on the basal half. The ventral paired 
fins are only lightly pigmented. The head pigment is composed mainly of 
largish stellate cells which are in greatest concentration on the preopercular 
and subocular regions. The latter is particularly prominent and persists as a 
large, rounded, dark blotch below the eyes of adult Stargazers. The dark parts 
of this postlarva had a metallic iridescent sheen when viewed macroscopically 
in the living condition. 
7. SPHFROIDES HAMILTONI (Richardson). COMMON TOADFISH. 
Tetrodon hamiltoni Richardson (1846), p. 63, pi. xxxix, f. 10-11. 
A few larval and postlarval stages, recognisable as belonging to fishes 
of the Family Tetraodontidae, have been picked up in surface tow nettings 
near the mouth of the Noosa River, some in June 1940 and others during April, 
August and September 1944. A few eggs, collected in the same locality in 
April, had a greyish, rough, thickened outer coating and led the writer to 
suspect that they were demersal rather than pelagic and had been brought to 
