Volume I Part 42 (2/2)

The fore edge of the preorbitar is slightly curved in for forward abruptly, so as to produce a notch, which is filled up by the extremity of the retracted maxillary The whole end of the snout, back to the eyes, including the disk of the preorbitar, is e pores borders the upper half of the orbit

The jaws, the uneven lobate disk of the preoperculuousscaly The scales of the cheek are disposed in six concentric curves, the saill-cover, but less conspicuously A small flat spinous point projects beyond the scales of the operculu The scales are ciliated The caudal is slightly notched at the end, its basal half is scaly, as is also the base of the pectorals; the rest of the fins are scaleless The dorsal is nearly even, its height being, however, rather greatest at the fourth or fifth spine Its end is rounded

A dark stripe, coht to the tail, and a fainter one occupies the summit of the back to the end of the dorsal The curve of the lateral line rises above the lower stripe anteriorly, but coincides with it beyond the posterior end of the dorsal The rest of the fish is silvery, and the fins are not marked These colours are described froth, 5 inches

HABITAT King George's Sound (Bynoe)

Chelinalis, Richardson, Annals and Mag of Nat Hist 10, page 28, September 1842

RADII D9 : 31; A 3-2l; C 17 3/3; P 16; V 1 : 5

FISHES PLATE 4 Natural size

This fish is described in the Annals of Natural History froton by Mr Gilbert It has very much the form of Chelmon rostratus, but wants the eye-like spot on the dorsal

Several exale from the north-west coast of Australia, all of which show a broad band passing between the dorsal and anal fins, which was not visible in the dried specimen This band is bounded anteriorly by one, and posteriorly by thitish lines In the Annals the anal fin is described as being ular than the dorsal, but in the specimens in spirits the reverse appears to be the case This variation depends on the degree or expansion of the fins, and boththe rays apart The exact distribution of the bands ure, which is very correct The rays of the fins probably vary in number in different individuals, and our careful enumeration of those speciives two or three soft rays more in the dorsal and anal, than ere able to detect in the dried skin

Length, 5 1/4 inches

HABITAT Northern and north-western coasts of Australia

assICULUS

CH GEN Corpus compressissimum, assulaeforme: caput crassius, minus altum, declive Os parvum Maxilla inferior porifera, ore clauso ascendens, hinc, ore hiante, ultra maxillaine integro nec spinifero, disco arcto, inaequali, esquaens Operculum tridentatum: Suboperculum crenatunis tecta Dentes villiformes, minuti cum dente canino in media utroque latere maxillae inferioris et trans apicem utriusque maxillae dentibus quatuor (vel sex) fortioribus, altioribus, in serie exteriori ordinatis Dentes voei, acerosi inequales, acuti

Membrana branchialis radiis sex sustentata, interoperculis liberis, accunae, nitidae ciliatae Linea lateralis antice abrupte ascendens, dein dorso parallela et approximata, postice diffracta infraque per nae esquamosae Pinna dorsi anique radiis tribus, spinosis, ceteris articulatis Pinnae ventrales sub pectorales offixae, propter tenuitate resemblance which the subject of this article bears to the Pseudochroe 8, taf

2, figure 3) induced enus, but on examination I found that very eneric characters assigned to Pseudochromis, to enable them to apply to our fish

(Footnote M Swainson, considering this name as very objectionable, has proposed Labristoma instead Both names are founded on the reseenus, in whole or in part, and the objection which has been ainst the other)

The above character has therefore been drawn up, and ichthyologists eneric forenus or subdivision of Pseudochro to their different views of arrangeenus, as described and restricted by Dr Ruppell, froe of it is derived, has the jaw teeth disposed in a single row, and the minute palatine teeth of a sphaeroidal fored, and is not toothed, nor is the suboperculum crenated; and a considerable nu to the three spinous ones, are si articulated and divided in the usual manner Linnaeus has briefly characterized two fish (Labrus ferrugineus, Bl Schn page 251, and Labrus , either to Pseudochromis or assiculus, and which are to be placed, M Valenciennes thinks, near Malacanthus, aassiz, is essentially cycloid in the structure of its scales, although there is a slight departure froid characters of the order in the serrated preopercular of Crenilabrus, Ctenolabrus, and so operculuenus is,scales with toothed edges, and rough to the touch when the finger is drawn forwards

It has the simple intestinal canal without caeca, which is proper to the Labridae The intestine of Pseudochro continuous with the rest of the aliuished by any cul de sac Having but one specimen of assiculus for examination, I have not been able to submit it to dissection to see whether the structure of its intestines be the same or not, but both it and Pseudochromis differ very widely fro the peculiar firly ciliated structure, which we observe in Glyphisodon and its allies, and in the lateral line being interrupted in a precisely similar manner Chromis and Plesiops have already been removed by M Valenciennes from the Labridae to the Glyphisodontidae, and it is with thee assiculus and Pseudochro the discrepancies in the forradation in the variation of form The normal number of caeca in the Glyphysodontidae is three In Chroenerally two small ones, while the Bolti of the Nile, or the Chroe cul de sac to the stomach Malacanthus is widely separated from the Glyphisodontidae by its continuous lateral line Since these remarks ritten I have seen Muller's paper, entitled, Beitrage zur Kentniss der naturlichen Familien der Fische, in which the Chromidae are indicated as a distinct family from the Glyphisodontidae, which latter he names Labroidei stenoidei; and Pseudochros to neither of these faeals with a division between them Dr Muller promises a separate article on Pseudochromis, which I have not yet seen

assiculus punctatus