146 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
palatines; canines sometimes present; opercular bones usually spinous; branchiostegals 7 or 8; gill- 
membranes separate, free from the isthmus; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; pseudobranchise present; 
gillrakers moderate; cheeks and opercles scaly; no barbels; dorsal fin continuous, with 2 to 8 weak 
spines; anal with 2 to 4 spines; ventral fins thoracic, mostly i, 7, the number of rays usually greater 
than i, 5; caudal fin usually forked; pyloric cceca numerous. Fishes mostly of the deep seas; general 
color, red or black. 
Genus 87. MELAMPHAES Gunther. 
Head large and thick, with nearly all the superficial bones modified into wide muciferous chan- 
nels; cleft of mouth of moderate width, obliquely descending backward, with the jaws nearly 
equal in front; eye small; a narrow' band of villiform teeth in each jaw; palate toothless; eight 
branchiostegals; pseudobranchise present; no barbels; opercles not armed; scales large, cycloid, rather 
irregularly arranged; one dorsal; centrals with 7 rays; caudal forked; anal spines very feeble. The 
single Hawaiian species of this genus is fully described in Section II. 
.1 fetopias Lowe, Proc. Zool. Soe. Lond. 1843, 90 ( typlilops ); name preoccupied in entomology. 
.1 felamphaes Giinther, Cat., V, 433, 1864 (Metopias typhlops). 
Genus 88. CAULOLEPIS Gill. 
Contour laterally oval or broad pyriform, the body compressed, covered with small, pedunculated 
leaf-like scales; forehead abruptly declivous; eye small; a pair of very long pointed teeth in front of 
upper jaw, closing in front of low'er; a similar pair of still longer pointed teeth in the lower, received 
in foveas of the palate; on the sides of each jaw 2 long teeth, terminating in bulbous tips; a row of 
minute teeth on the posterior half of the supramaxillaries; palate toothless. The single Hawaiian 
species ( Caulolepis longidens) of this genus is described in Section II. 
Caulolepis Gill, Forest and Stream, XXI, Aug. 30, 1883, and in Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., VI, 1884, 258 (longidens). 
Family XLIX. H0L0CENTR1D4J. — The Squirrel-Fishes. 
Body oblong or ovate, moderately compressed, covered with very strongly ctenoid or spinous 
scales; head with large muciferous cavities; eye lateral, very large; preorbital very narrotv; mouth 
moderate, oblique; premaxillaries protractile; maxillary very large, with supplemental bone: bands 
of villiform teeth on jaws, vomer, and palatines; opercular bones and membrane bones of head gen- 
erally serrated or spinescent along the edges; branchiostegals 8; gill-membranes separate, free from 
isthmus; gills 4, a slit behind fourth ; pseudobranchise present; gillrakers moderate; no barbels; sides 
of head scaly; lateral line present; dorsal fin very long, deeply divided, with about 11 strong spines 
depressible in a scaly groove; anal with 4 spines, the third longest and strongest; ventrals thoracic, 
with 1 spine and 7 rays; caudal deeply forked, with sharp rudimentary rays or fulcra at the base; 
vertebrae about 27 ; pyloric cceca 8 to 25; air-bladder large, sometimes connected with the organ of 
hearing. General color red. Young with snout sharps and produced (constituting the nominal 
genera Rhynchichthys, Rhamphoberyx, and Rhinoberyx, based on peculiarities of immature examples). 
Genera about 7; species about 70; gaily colored inhabitants of the tropical seas, abounding about 
coral reefs. 
a. Preopercle without a conspicuous spine at its angle. 
b. Scales with rather rough surface. 
c. Scales small, about 40 to 45 in the lateral line: lower jaw projecting and fitting in a deep 
notch in the upper jaw Holotrachys, p. 147 
cc. Scales large, about 29 in the lateral line; opercular spine usually elongate and rough-edged Ostichthys, p. 147 
bb. Scales with comparatively smooth surface Myripristis, p. 149 
aa. Preopercle with a conspicuous spine at its angle. 
d. Mouth very large: chin much projecting; lower jaw considerably more than one-half 
length of head Flammeo, p. 155 
dd. Mouth moderate; lower jaw slightly projecting or included, its length less than one-half 
length of head Holocentrus, p. 158 
