222 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Color dark purplish brown, paler posteriorly, with very faint paler and darker cross shades toward 
the tail; head, body, and fins covered with small blue spots ringed with black; anteriorly the spots 
form rows running backward and upward; below they form irregular longitudinal lines; spinous dorsal 
edged with bright orange; soft dorsal, anal, and caudal edged with whitish. 
This species is common about t lie coral reefs in the south seas. It is recorded from Hawaii by 
Quoy and Gaimard, but no later observer has found it about these islands. Our description is taken 
from specimens from Samoa. 
Fig. 88. — Cephalopholis argus Bloch & Schneider; after Giinther. 
Bodianus guttatus, Bloch, Ausl. Fische, IV, 36, PI. CCXXIV, 1790; not of Linnaeus. 
Cephalopholis argus Bloch & Schneider, Syst., Iehth. 311, 1801, India. 
Serranus argus , Cuvier & Valenciennes, His. Nat. Poiss., II, 360, 1828; Gunther, Cat., I, 115, 1859 (East Indies); Peters, Mon. 
Bell. Ac.- 1865, 103. 
Serranus in y r iaster Cuvier & Valenciennes, op. cit.,365, Sandwich Islands; Ruppell, Atlas Fische roth. Meer., 107, PI. XXVII, 
fig. 1, 1828; Lesson, Voy. Coquille, Zool.', 234, PI. XXXVII, 1828 (Indian Ocean; Borabora), Quoy & Gaimard, Voy. 
Astrolabe, Poiss., 653, PI. Ill, tig. 1,1833 (New Guinea); Richardson, Rep. Iehth. China, 233, 1846, in R.ept. 15th meeting 
British Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1845 (Sandwich Islands; Polynesia; New Guinea; Australia; China and Red Sea). 
Serranus guttatus , Gunther, Cat., 1, 119, 1859; Kner, Novara, Fische, 22, 1865; Klunzinger, Verb. Zool. Bot. Ges. Wien, XX, 
1870, 686: Giinther, Fische der Stidsee, 5, PI. IV, 1873; Macleay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. W., V..1880, 315 (North coast, of 
Australia); Klunzinger, Fische roth. Meer., 3, 1884. 
Epinephelus guttatus, Sleeker, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk.. I, 1863, 232 (Isle Ternate). 
Epinephelus argus, Bleeker, Verb. Akad. Amst., XIV, No. 2, 1874, 57 (East Indian Archipelago); Atlas Iehth., VII, 43; PI. 
CCCXLII, fig. 3, 1876; Sauvage, Hist. Madag., Poiss., in Grandidiers Hist. Phys. Nat. et Polit. Madagascar, XVI, 
1891, 54. 
Serranus guttatus , Day, Fish. Ind., 24, PI. VI, fig. 3, 1875, and Fauna Ind., Fish., I, 457, 1889, part, 
f Serranus perguttatus De Vis, Proc. Linn. Soc. N.-S. W., VIII, 1883, 445, New Hebrides. 
Epinephelus miniatus, Sauvage, op. cit. , 52, part. 
Genus 126. EPINEPHELUS Bloch. The Groupers. 
Body stout, compressed, covered with small, ctenoid scales, which are often somewhat embedded 
in the skin; scales of lateral line triangular, cycloid; soft parts of vertical fins generally more or less 
scaly; cranium narrow above; parietal crests not produced on frontals, which are without transverse 
ridge posterially; frontals with a process or knob on each side behind interorbital area; premaxillary 
processes fitting into a notch or cavity on anterior end of frontals; preopercle moderately serrate 
behind, its lower limb entire, without distinct antrorse spine; opercle with two strong spines; nostrils 
well separated;’ mouth large, maxillary large, with a well-developed supplemental bone, its surface 
usually with small scales; canine teeth few, large, in the front of the jaws; enlarged teeth of inner 
series of each jaw depressible; gillrakers short and rather few; dorsal spines usually 11, rarely 10, not 
filamentous, the last ones somewhat shorter than middle ones; anal spines 3, the second usually the 
larger; the number of soft rays 7 to 9; caudal fin rounded or lunate; pyloric coeca few (usually 10 to 20) ; 
