6 
THE FISHES OF MALABAR. 
It grows to a large size in Malabar. Cantor mentions one captured at Pinang, the weight of 
which exceeded 130 pounds. It is good eating. 
Habitat—The seas of India and Malaysia. 
Serranus diacanthus. 
Serranus diacanthus, Guv. & Val. ii. p. 319; Gunther, Catal. i. p. 110. 
Killi meen, Mai. 
B. vii. D. -]A. P. 19. V. 1. A. f. C. 16-17. L. r. about 90. 
Length of head I, of pectoral jt, of caudal 1, of base of dorsal -1, of base of anal 1 of total 
length. Height of head §, of body 1, of hard dorsal yy,-, of soft dorsal of ventral ys, of anal 
of total length. 
Eyes—Diameter 1 length of head, lj- diameters apart, 11 diameters from end of snout. 
The maxilla reaches to beneath the posterior margin of the orbit. Preorbital entire : sub- and 
interopercles entire: preopercle with a roughly serrated posterior vertical margin, the serratures 
becoming larger at the angle which is cut nearly square, the four lower teeth flat and exceedingly 
sharp, horizontal portion oblique, entire. Operclewith three spines, the central one of which is the 
largest, the other two being nearly concealed. 
Teeth—-Sharp and numerous in upper and lower jaws, vomer, and palate. A large canine on 
either intermaxillary, teeth in maxilla largest in front and curved backwards; in lower jaw largest 
behind and also directed backwards. 
Fins—First dorsal spine slightly more than half the height of second, which is four-fifths of 
the height of the third, from thence all are the same. Ventral spine rather weak, not quite half the 
length of the rays. First anal spine not quite half so long as the second which is rather shorter 
than the third, which last is the strongest. In young specimens the comparative length of the 
spine to the rays is more than obtains in the adult. Fins rounded. 
Lateral line—In upper fifth of body, on sixteenth row of scales. 
Colours—Back brownish, fading into white on the abdomen, whilst the whole of the fish even 
over its brachiostegal rays is covered with bright orange spots, intermingled on the head and tail 
with brown ones. Head darkish, one vertical brown band commences at the margin of the first 
four dorsal spines, passes down them and descends nearly as low as the pectoral fin : a second arises 
between the seventh and ninth spines and is lost on the abdomen: two more descend from the soft 
portion of the dorsal fin, and a fifth crosses the tail between the termination of the dorsal fin and 
the origin of the caudal: whilst a sixth broad one crosses the base of this last fin. Pectoral 
reddish spotted with yellow : eye dark-brown, its upper part of the deepest tint. 
Sometimes the caudal, pectoral, and ventral are unspotted, but marked with darker shades, 
and the bands are continued on to them. In young specimens the bands are most distinct, when 
the fish becomes upwards of a foot in length they begin to fade, likewise they always become 
more or less indistinct after death, and sometimes quite disappear. 
The descriptions of the Serranus suillus, C. V. and S. salmonoicles, Lacep. apparently taken 
from large specimens, seem hardly to be dissimilar from the S. diacanthus, C. V. excepting 
that the latter is banded : but as this portion of the colouration usually becomes obsolete in large 
specimens the distinction between the species appears to be still a desideratum. 
Grows to a larg'e size, and is good eating. 
Habitat’—The seas of India, China, and the Mauritius. 
