398 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
Habitat. — West ludian fauna ; north to Charleston, south to Montevideo. 
Etymology. — Formosus, handsome. 
This handsome fish is common on the south Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the United 
States on rocky bottoms at a moderate depth. It reaches a length of little more than 
a foot. 
We have examined specimens from Charleston, Pensacola, Key West, Captiva 
Key, Havana, Pernambuco, and Eio Janeiro. These specimens show no evident 
specific differences; but the differences due to age are somewhat considerable. The 
smallest specimens before us (2 inches long) have a very distinct dark lateral band 
running from the tip of the snout and ending in a dark spot at the upper base of 
caudal fin ; another (paler) band runs from upper part of eye to base of last dorsal 
rays ; another from above eye along base of dorsal. These bands are sharply defined 
in the young, and traces of them are usually found in all examples. In the smallest 
specimens the preopercle is simply but coarsely serrate with a salient angle; in larger 
ones a portion of the preopercle is prolonged backwards and its spines begin to radi-* 
ate. In examples of 4 inches the spines are not yet divided into two fasciae, but later 
they begin to show radiation from two distinct centers. In specimens of 7| inches 
the two fascicles of spines are distinct. In the largest the upper lobe of the caudal 
is filamentous. 
We adopt the name formosus for this species, as it is evidently the original Perea 
formosa of Linnaeus, sent from Charleston by Dr. Garden. 
79. DIPLECTRUM EURYPLECTRUM. 
Diplectvum euryplectrum Jordan & Bollman, Proo. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1889, 157 (Sea between Panama 
and Galapagos Islands). 
Habitat. — Pacific coast of South America. 
Etymology. — ^Eopuc;, wide ; TzXijxrpuv, spur. 
This species is known from numerous specimens dredged by the Albatross at a depth 
of about 35 fathoms. It is found in company with D. macropoma, a species which it 
closely resembles, and into which it may possibly be found to intergrade. 
80. DIPLECTRUM MACROPOMA. 
Centropristis macropoma Gunther, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 145, 1864 (Panama) ; Giinther, Fish. Cen 
tral Amer., 409, pi. Lxv, 1869 (Panama). 
Diplectrum macropoma Jordan & Bollman, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1889, 157 (Panama and southward). 
Habitat . — Pacific coast of tropical America. 
Etymology. — Maxp6<;, large ; Trujpa, opercle. 
This species, hitherto known from a single young example which we had supposed 
to be the young of B. radiale, was obtained in abundance by the Albatross with the 
preceding in the sea south of Panama. A few specimens were also taken at Panama. 
81. DIPLECTRUM RADIALE. 
Serranus radialis Quoy & Gaimard, Voyage Uranie, 316,1824 (Rio Janeiro); Ciiv. & Val., Hist. Nat. 
Poiss., II, 243, 1828 (Rio Janeiro); Cuvier, Rfegne Animal, 1829 (name only) ; Jordan, Cat. 
Fish. N. Am. 82, 1885 ; Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 376, 1885 (Gulf of California ; Panama). 
Centropristis radialis Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., I, 83, 1859 (Bahia) ; Steindachuer, Ichth. Beitrage, 
IV, 6, 1875 (Brazil). 
