286 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVIII, July 1964 
Fig. 4. Holotype of Cephalopholis aurantius (Cuvier and Valenciennes), 165 mm standard length, Sey- 
chelles ( MNHN 765). 
small grouper to market which proved difficult 
to identify. At first it was believed to be Ceph- 
alopholis aurantius (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 
(1828). Although this species had not been 
recorded previously from the Society Islands, 
another, Serranus roseus Cuvier and Valenci- 
ennes with a type locality of Tahiti, has been 
placed in the synonymy of aurantius by authors 
such as Boulenger (1895)- Cuvier and Valen- 
ciennes described roseus from a painting by 
Parkinson in the library of Banks. A. C. Wheeler 
of the British Museum (Natural History) kindly 
sent a photograph of Parkinson’s painting. The 
fish is obviously Variola louti ( Forskal ) ; thus 
it has been improperly placed in the synonymy 
of aurantius. 
M. L. Bauchot of the Museum National 
d’Histoire Naturelle in Paris sent the holotype 
of Serranus aurantius (Fig. 4) so that it might 
be compared with the specimen from Tahiti. It 
was soon evident that the two are not the same 
species. 
The following observations were made of 
the holotype of aurantius, which is 165 mm in 
standard length and 201 mm in total length: 
dorsal rays IX, 15 (last ray composite, first 
unbranched ) ; anal rays III, 9 ( last ray compos- 
ite); pectoral rays 18 (all branched except upper- 
most; 15 branched caudal rays; pored lateral-line 
scales 53 (includes 3 beyond hypural); vertical 
scale rows from upper end of gill opening to 
end of hypural about 113; gill rakers 9 + 1 + 
15; depth of body 2.83 in standard length; head 
length 2.5 in standard length; width of body 
2.3 in head length; greatest diameter of eye 6 
in head length; interorbital space moderately 
convex, the fleshy width equal to vertical diame- 
ter of eye; maxillary reaches slightly posterior 
to eye; middle opercular spine slightly nearer 
lower than upper spine; opercular flap pointed; 
preopercular margin broadly rounded with a 
slight indentation at angle; upper limb and in- 
dentation of preopercular margin finely denticu- 
late; small scales on head, including maxillary 
and mandible; scales on head and anteriorly on 
body cycloid; a pair of adjacent canine teeth in 
upper jaw (one missing on one side) separated 
by a space equal to .8 eye diameter; comparable 
canines in lower jaw separated by about .3 eye 
diameter; bands of villiform teeth in jaws broad 
anteriorly; narrow V-shaped band of villiform 
teeth on vomer, and narrow band on palatine in 
length equal to .5 eye diameter; longest gill 
raker at angle, about 1.5 times longer than gill 
filaments; pectoral fins reach a vertical at origin 
of anal fin; tips of pelvic fins reach slightly 
beyond anus; color in alcohol uniform pale 
yellowish; a black submarginal band at posterior 
