156 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Color in life: Body yellowish-brown, paler below, upper part of side with about 7 longitudinal 
stripes of dark brown from head to tail, these becoming rows of round orange spots below; 6 dark, 
inconspicuous, vertical body bars; head with many smaller orange-brown spots; lower part of head and 
breast with pale-bluish spots; fins brownish; soft dorsal with oblique bars of black; spinous dorsal olive, 
blotched with brown ; ventral olive, edged with darker; other fins obscurely barred ; inside of mouth pale. 
Found in the West Indies, Cuba to Brazil; also recorded from Africa and the Falkland Islands; not 
known from Florida; apparently not uncommon about Porto Rico. Two females, 7.5 and 9.5 inches 
long, respectively, and each with well-developed roe, were obtained in the San Juan market January 17. 
Another specimen, 4 inches long, was gotten at Mayaguez. The species reaches a length of a foot or 
more and is a food-fish of importance. The only local name heard for it was “eherna.” 
Plectropoma chloroptcrum Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., II, 398, 1828, Santo Domingo and Martinique. 
Plectropoma monacanthus Muller & Troschel, in Schomburgk’s Hist. Barbados, 065, 1817, Barbados. 
Alphestes afer, Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 1101, 1896. 
Genus 70. MYCTEROPERCA Gill. 
Cranium broad and transversely concave between eyes, its lateral crests very strong, nearly 
parallel with supraoccipital crest and extending much farther forward than latter, joining supraocular 
crest above eye, supraoccipital crest not extending on frontals; frontal bones without anterior concavity 
or notch for reception of premaxillaries, without processes on the upper surface; lower jaw strongly 
projecting; anal fin elongate, with 11 or 12 (in one species 9 or 10) soft rays; caudal lunate; spines of 
fins slender, none of them much elevated; scales small, mostly cycloid, those on lateral line simple; 
pyloric caeca few; gillrakers various; nostrils small, and subequal or with posterior enlarged. Other- 
wise essentially as in Epinephelm, from which genus Mycteroperca is well separated by the structure of 
the skull, and superficially by longer anal, larger mouth, and more elongate body. 
Large, handsome fishes of the Tropics, mostly American, including some of the most valuable 
food-fishes in the Gulf of California and at least six of the valuable species of the Florida coast. Of 
the 20 or more American species only 2 are thus far known from Porto Rico. All are excellent for 
food, and those found where fisheries have become established are much sought. 
a. Nostrils subequal, well separated; scales on head cycloid. 
h. Gillrakers comparatively few and short, 8 to 20 below angle of arch. 
Trisotropis: 
c. Anal rays in, 11 or in, 12, the fin long. 
d. Anal fin not angulated, its outline more or less evenly rounded in adult as well as in young; soft parts of vertical 
fins edged with black in life. 
e. Angle of preopercle not salient, its teeth scarcely enlarged; gillrakers x + 8 to 10. 
/. Gillrakers very few and short, x + 8 developed (besides some rudiments); general color pale, bright red or grayish, 
with roundish spots or blotches of black or red darker than the ground-color; the blacker blotches along mid- 
dle of sides.much larger and quadrate in young; red always present somewhere in life (fading in spirits); pec- 
torals blackish, in the adult broadly tipped with orange-yellow; scales rather small (about 125), caudal lunate. 
g. General color gray, with red and black markings ; venenosa 
gg. General color scarlet, with red and black markings apua 
ff. Gillrakers rather slender, about x + 10 (besides several rudiments) ; caudal subtruncate; nostrils small. 
h. Scales not very small (about 110); color dark olive-green; sides of head and body with rivulations of dark-bluish 
around roundish dark-bronze spots, large or small (these markings subject to considerable variation, fading in 
spirits); sides with darker quadrate areas. 
i. Dark blotches on body rather large, often quadrate bonaci, 112 
it. Dark spots on body very small, close-set, of a deep-bronze orange xanthosticta 
ce. Angle of preopercle more or less salient, its teeth somewhat enlarged; gillrakers more numerous, x + 12 to 14. 
j. Scales not very small (about 110); upper part of body dark-brown, lower half abruptly paler; a pale ring around 
caudal peduncle, behind which is a squarish dark blotch, smaller than eye, at base of upper rays of caudal; 
caudal deeply lunate; teeth strong dimidiata 
Parepinephelus : 
bb. Gillrakers close-set, very long and slender, 25 to 35 below angle of arch. 
k. Caudal fin lunate, its angles more or less produced in adult, fin subtruncate in young; anal fin more or less angulate 
in adult, rounded in young; soft dorsal somewhat angular; scales rather large (lateral line 95); body rather 
deep, snout sharp; preopercle with a salient angle which is armed with larger teeth ; dorsal spines low; gillrakers 
close-set, x + 30, longest 7.5 in head; ventrals not reaching to vent; color olive-gray, with darker reticulations 
around pale spots; fins not much darker on their edges; a dark mustache along maxillary; adult examples 
nearly uniform brown; not known to be red rubra 
aa. Nostrils very close together, posterior decidedly larger than anterior, and with a more or less distinct horizontal 
cross-septum within; scales on head cycloid. 
