EDIBLE FISHES OF QUEENSLAND, BAFT I.—OGILBY. 
6T 
Distribution : — 
Small aberrant percomorphous fishes from the tropical and temperate zones- 
of the Indian, Pacific, and West Atlantic Oceans, but not so far reported from the 
Mediterranean or West African Seas. While mostly inhabitants of the inshore 
waters, some species descend to a moderate depth, the greatest yet recorded being 
between 40 and 52 fathoms, at which depth specimens of Liopempheris multiradiata 
were trawled by the Endeavour off Bellinger Head, New South Wales.* This should, 
therefore, be taken as the limit of the ascertained bathymetrical range of the Pern- 
pheridce up to the present time.f 
The Indo -Pacific branch of the family appears to have originated in the 
Austro -Malayan subregion, whence it has spread northward to China, Japan, and 
the Caroline Islands ; westward through the seas of India to the Bed Sea, the East 
Coast of Africa (Zanzibar), and Mauritius ; eastward through the Pacific Islands 
(Tahiti, Kingsmill, Samoa) to the West Coast of Mexico (Acapulco) ; and southward 
to south-eastern, southern, and south-western Australia, Tasmania, and even New 
Zealand. Between this southern colony and the Moluccas there is, however, a 
nominal break of some 3,000 miles, including necessarily the entire coast-line of 
Queensland, from which, up to the present, no pempherin has been recorded. That 
this break, which is partly bridged over by the occurrence of an outlying species at 
Lord Howe Island, is rightly called “ nominal ” is certain, since two of the Moluccan 
species — Pempheris oualensis and P. vanicolensis — extend their range to the South 
Sea Islands, and are, therefore, probably found along the seaboard of intertropical 
Australia. The third Moluccan species — P. macrolepidota (Schneider) — also belongs 
to the typical genus. But, as might be conjectured, the further we get away from 
the metropolis of the group, the more liable we are to find characters, inconsistent 
with its original purity, developing in the species. It is not, therefore, astonishing 
that, of the four species, which inhabit the south-eastern corner of Australia, 
one only — P. compressa (Shaw) J — retains the typical characters ; two others — - 
P. multiradiata Klunzinger and P. affinis McCulloch — have developed in themselves 
distinct characters, on which I propose to establish the genus Liopempheris ; the 
fourth — P. elongatus McCulloch — belongs to Steindachner’s genus Parapriacanthus. 
* In another haul the Endeavour secured specimens of the same fish on the ocean slope 
between Port Stephens and Newcastle at a depth of from 22 to 60 fathoms, but obviously it 
would be unwise to insist on the higher figure, since the inference is, that a fish, which occurs at 
a depth of one or two fathoms in Port Jackson, would more probably be taken near the inshore 
end of the drift in the same district. 
t 111 this connection it is worthy of note that the family is not mentioned in Goode & 
Beams standard work “ Oceanic Ichthyology, >5 nor does it) occur n the Challenger, H'rcndelle, 
Blake, Albatross, and Investigator Reports. It is only on coastwise trawlers, such as the 
Endeavour and Thetis, that this family appears. 
+ Even this species Snyder has assoc. ated with the Japanese P. umbra in a genus Catalufa f . 
which, however, I am unable to recognise as distinct. 
