340 
BULI.ETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
likely that the species is identical with Bypticus xanti. Possibly it is a deeper-water 
form, analogous to the red forms of certain species of Mycteroperca. The plate of this 
species (issued in 1846) is named ^‘■Byptictis bicolor, the name Smecticus appearing in 
the later text (1855). 
5. RYPTICUS SAPONACEUS. 
soap-fish; jabon; jaboncillo. 
JaboncilloPuTTa, Difer. Piezas de Hist. Nat., 51, lam. 24, f. 2, 1787 (Havana). 
Anihias saponaceus Bloclj and Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 310, 1801 (after Parra). 
Bhypticus saponaceus Cnv. and Val., Hist. Nat. des Poissons, III, 63, 1820 (Brazil; Cape Verde); Storer, 
Syu. Fishes N. A., 289, 1846 (copied); Giinther, I, 172, 1859 (Cape of Good Hope; St./ Helena; 
West Indies; St. Vincent’s, Jamaica); Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1869, 52; Giinther, Proc. 
Zool. Soc., Lend., 225, 1868 (St. Helena) ; Poey, Syn. Pise. Cuhensium, 297, 1868 (Havana) ; 
Co[(e, Trans. Am. Phil. Soc., 1870, 467 (St. Croix); Peters, Berliner Monatsberichte, 245, 1876 
(Victoria, West Africa) ; Poey, Enumeratio, 34, 1875 (Havana) ; Poey, Fauna Puerto Riquena, 
322, 1881 (Porto Rico); Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 35, 1^84 (Pensacola) ; Jordan, Cat. Pishes 
N. A., 85, 1885; Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886, 581 ; Jordan, op. cit., 41 (Havana). 
Rhypticus microps Castelnau, Anim. Nouv. ou Rares de I’Amer. du Sud, 6, 1855 (Bahia), (after Perea microps 
Broussonet, a MSS. name ?). 
Habitat. — West Indian fauna, Pensacola to West Africa and Brazil. 
Etymology. — Saponaceus, soapy. 
This species is the best known and most widely distributed of the soap-fishes. Our 
specimens are from Havana, Pensacola, and Bahia. The young specimens are much 
slenderer in form and more uniform in color than the adult, but we think that all be- 
long to the same species. 
The name Bypticus microps has been adopted for this species by Castelnau, ou ac- 
count of the early name Perea microps of Broussonet. We find, however, no published 
reference to this name except the statement by Cuvier, that a specimen bearing this 
MSS. name is in the museum at Paris. We doubt whether it has priority of publica- 
tion over Anthias saponaceus. 
6. RYPTICUS ARENATUS. 
Bypticus arenatusCixY. and Val., 111,65, pi. 45, 1829 (Brazil); Giinther, Cat. Fish, Brit. Mus., 1, 1859, p. 173. 
(Jamaica, Trinidad); Steiudachner, Ichth. Notiz., VI, 41, 1867 (Barbadoes); Jordan Proc. U. S. 
Nat. Mus., 1886, 581. 
? Bhypticus suhhifrenatus Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila., 1861, 53 (St. Thomas). 
Habitat. — West Indian Fauna. 
Etymology. — Arenatus, sanded, from the speckled coloration. 
We have not seen this species, and take our account of it chiefly from Dr. Steiu- 
dachner. 
The scanty description of a young example published by Gill, under the name of 
Bhypticus subbifrenatus, seems to approach very closely to B. arenatus. The following 
is the substance of Dr. Gill’s account of B. subbifrenatus. 
Color dusky, with remote dark spots ; head with two series of spots ; one series of four between 
orbit and opercular spine; the other of three smaller spots between eye and suprascapula ; head 2i in 
length (3^ with caudal) ; depth 3f (4|^ with caudal). D. Ill, 23. A. 15. 
