142 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
openings wide, the gill-membranes not united, free from the isthmus; gillrakers very short or obsolete; 
branchiostegals 7; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; pseudobranchite well developed; air-bladder large, 
bifurcate anteriorly; many pyloric cceca; lateral line well developed, straight; pectoral fins short, placed 
in or below line of axis of body; ventrals i, 5, abdominal, in advance of middle of body; first dorsal 
over ventrals, of 5 rather stout spines; second dorsal remote from first dorsal, similar to anal and oppo- 
site to it; caudal fin forked; vertebne 24; first superior pharyngeal not present; second, third, and 
fourth separate, with teeth; lower pharyngeals separate. A single genus of about 20 species; carniv- 
orous, pike-like fishes, often of large size, active and voracious, inhabiting warm seas, many of them 
highly valued as food. 
Genus 84. SPHYRALNA (Artedi) Bloch & Schneider. 
Characters of the genus included above. 
Sphyrsena (Artedi) Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 109, 1801 (sphyrxna). 
Sphserina Swainson, Nat. Hist. Fishes, etc., II, 175, 1839 (europxa=spkyrxna) . 
a. Scales rather large, 11-85-9 snodgrassi, p. 142 
aa. Scales smaller, 14-135-15 helleri , p 143 
100. Sphyraena snodgrassi Jenkins. “ Kahu Fig. 50. 
Head 3.25 in length; depth 6.5; eye 7.3 in head; snout 2.1 ; D.v-i, 9; A. i, 9; scales 11-85-9; longest 
dorsal spine 3. 1 in head, ray 2.5 in head; anal 2.4; ventral 3.2; pectoral 2.9; interorbital 4.7, nearly twice 
vertical diameter of eye; maxillary 2.2. Body and head regularly fusiform; lower jaw projecting 
beyond upper a distance equal to 
two-thirds diameter of pupil, tip 
blunt, not terminated by fleshy 
appendages; eye slightly ovate, 
larger and anterior; interorbital 
space flat; maxillary reaching 
front of eye; suborbital scaled; 
about 18 rows of vertical scales 
from eye to edge of preoperele, 8 
rows on opercle, those of operele 
enlarged, rest of head naked; 
opercle without spines, but with 1 
or 2 blunt flexible points; each 
side of upper jaw with 2 long, 
sharp, canine teeth in front and 5 or 6 nearly as large but broader teeth , growing gradually smaller 
posteriorly; lower jaw with 2 large anterior median teeth similar to anterior teeth in upper jaw and 
back of them a single series of about 15 smaller teeth on each jaw; second and third dorsal spines the 
longest; caudal forked, lobes equal; anal fin slightly behind soft dorsal, the 2 similar iii form; lateral 
line slightly decurved on body before second dorsal, posterior part straight. 
Color in life, dark olive-brown above; side silvery; about 20 very faint short blackish bars just 
above lateral line, their depth about 4 rows of scales, the bars rather wider than the silvery inter- 
spaces; membraneous edge of opercle jet black; first dorsal blackish, second with a jet-black central 
blotch, the tips white; caudal black with white tips; anal like the second dorsal, the blackish blotch 
fainter; pectoral dusky at base; ventrals white; young with 13 dark crossbars. 
Description from a specimen 17 inches long. We have 5 specimens 13 to 18 inches long from 
Honolulu, one 8.25 inches long from Hilo, 6 about 5 inches long from Waialua, and one very large 
example (No. 04515), 33 inches long, from Honolulu. Specimens 4 to 6 fcfet in length were seen in 
the market at Honolulu. This is a large voracious species of wide range, entering the open sea. 
Sphyrsena commcrsonii , Fowler, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. I’hila. 1900, 501 (Hawaiian Islands); Jenkins, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 
XXII, 1902 (Sept. 23, 1903), 438 (Honolulu); Snyder, op. eit. (Jan. 19, 1904), 523 (Honolulu). 
