THE FISHES OF PORTO RICO. 
167 
122. Priacanthus cruentatus (Lacepede). “Ojon”; Catalufa; “Ojudo”; Big-eye. 
Head 3; depth 2.5; eye 2.6; snout 3.2; maxillary 2; mandible 1.6; interorbital 3.7; D. x, 13; 
A. hi, 14; pectoral 1.8; ventral 1.4; caudal 1.2; scales about DO. Body deeper than in P. arenatus, and 
preopercular spine stronger, curved, and serrate. 
Color in life: Body silvery, washed with rosy; back with five or six rosy, saddle-like blotches 
extending on sides to below lateral line; under parts rosy; vertical fins with pale bases, brighter out- 
wardly; caudal black-edged; pectoral and ventral rosy, ventral black-tipped. 
This fish ranges from the West Indies to St. Helena and the Canaries, and is known from Cuba, 
Jamaica, and Porto Rico, but not yet recorded from the United States. Probably not common in 
Porto Rico. Our collection contains but a single specimen, 8 inches long, obtained in the San Juan 
market, though others were seen. It reaches a length of a foot or more, and is a good food-fish, 
common in the Havana market. 
Labrus cruentatus Lactip^de, Hist. Nat. Poiss., III. 522, 1800, Martinique. 
Priacanthus cepedianus Desmarest, Prem. Dee. Ichthy., 9, pi. 1 , 1823, Havana; Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 322, 1881 
Stahl, 1. c„ 76 and 162, 1883. 
Priacanthus cruentatus, Stahl, 1. c., 76 and 102, 1883; Jordan & Evermann, 1. c., 1238, 1896. 
Family XLIV LUTlANlDdi. The Snappers. 
Body oblong or more or less elevated, covered with moderate-sized adherent scales, which are 
more or less strongly ctenoid or almost cycloid. Lateral line well developed, concurrent with back, 
not extending on caudal fin. Head large, crests on skull usually largely developed. No suborbital 
stay; mouth moderate or large, usually terminal, low, and horizontal. Premax diaries moderately 
protractile, their spines not extending to occiput; maxillary long, without supplemental bone, for 
most of its length slipping under edge of preorbital, which forms a more or less distinct sheath, its 
form essentially as in the Serranidse; teeth various, unequal, and sharp, never incisor-like, some of 
them sometimes molar; vomer and palatines usually with villiform teeth, these sometimes molar, 
sometimes very small, sometimes wanting; lower pharyngeals separate; gills 4, a slit behind fourth; 
pseudobranchiae large; gillrakers moderate or long, slender; gill -membranes separate, free from isth- 
mus. Preopercle serrate or entire; opercles without spines; sides of head usually scaly. Dorsal fin 
single, continuous, or deeply notched, sometimes divided into two fins, spines usually strong, depressible 
in a groove, heteracanthous, that is, alternating, one stronger on right side, other on left; spines 10 
to 12 in number. Anal fin similar to soft dorsal and with 3 spines; ventral fins thoracic, the rays i, 5, 
with a more or less distinct scale-like appendage at base; caudal fin usually more or less concave 
behind. Air-bladder present, usually simple. Intestinal canal short. Pyloric caeca few. Vertebrae 
usually 10 -f- 14 = 24. No distinct tubercles from cranium for articulation of epipharyngeal bones; 
enlarged apophyses for articulation of palatine and preorbital bones; anterior 4 vertebra; without 
parapophyses. 
The Lutianidse comprise about 20 genera and some 250 species, chiefly inhabiting shores of warm 
regions, all active, carnivorous, and voracious, and all valued as food. The group is closely related to 
the Serranidse on the one hand and to the Ihemulidse on the other. 
HOPI.OPAGRIN.E : 
a. Vomer with teeth. 
b. Nostrils near together, placed just before eye, anterior not tubular; vomerine teeth villiform, the patch A. A. or 
O-shaped; teeth in jaws all acute; no incisors or molars. 
c. Palatines with teeth; teeth in jaws strong, more or less unequal. 
LUTIANIN.E: 
d. Interorbital area not flat nor separated from occipital region, median and lateral crests procurrent on it, and 
frontal narrowed forward, dorsal fin continuous, spines not separated by a notch from soft rays. 
e. Prefontals with articular facets arising from diverging V-shaped ridges; basi-sphenoid with an anterior lobiform 
extension; soft dorsal and anal scaly; dorsal spines 10 or 11 (in American species) ; tongue with teeth (at least 
in adult examples). 
/. Fronto-occipital crest ceasing anteriorly far from front of frontal; prefrontal with posterior areas impressed, long, 
and cribriform; no pterygoid teeth; caudal fin lunate or forked; gillrakers rather few, shortish. 
g. Top of head naked; an oblique band of scales on each side of nape; parietal crest not confluent with fronto-occip- 
ital crest, either fading away anteriorly or running into ocular rim; preopercle with a shallow notch or 
emargination only Neom^nis, 77 
