Descriptions of New Species of Fishes.
BY ANDREW GARRETT, OF HONOLULU, S. I.
Julis Cuv.
Julis ornatissimus Garrett.
D. 9-13; A. 2-13; V. 1-5; P. 12; C. 2, 1, 6, 6, 1, 2.
The body of this Julis is rich green, which gradually passes into light blue on the breast and belly. The scales on the green ground are margined with vermillion red, and there is a slight tinge of the latter color on the abdominal scales. Four alternate oblique light red and blue vittæ pass from the middle of the gill-opening, and gradually fade away beneath the anterior portion of the abdomen. The head, which is emerald green, is ornamented with vermillion red stripes, which have their margins shaded off with brilliant blue. The stripes are disposed as follows: one traverses the upper line of profile, two extend from the upper lip to the eye, one follows the lower line of the head, passing up the hinder margin of the gill covers; two horizontal ones on the cheek, and, posteriously to the eye they assume reticulations. Irides golden yellow, with shades of light red; cornea dusky green. The dorsal, anal and caudal fins are carmine red, margined with pale blue. The former with a basal row of large spots, and an intramarginal band, dark green. Two similar bands mark the outer half of the anal fin, and spots of the same color may be observed on the caudal. The ventrals are pale, straw-yellow, with blue, anterior margins. Pectorals have a pale, yellow tinge at their base.
The greatest depth of the body, as compared to the entire length of the fish, is about one to four. The scales are rather large. The head constitutes a little less than a fourth of the total length. In addition to the usual teeth which characterize the genus, we observe a spiniform tooth projecting obliquely forward from the posterior portion of the branches of the upper jaw. The caudal fin is posteriorly rounded off, and the ventrals are long and pointed.
Length, 4½ inches.
Habitat, Sandwich Islands.
Remarks.—We have observed only a single example of this very rare and beautiful fish, which was captured at the island of Hawaii in 1856. Its peculiar markings will readily distinguish it from any of the numerous species inhabiting our coasts. In shape and markings of the head it resembles Julis pæcila, figured in the Zoology of the Voyage of the “Blossom,” but the colors of the body and fins are widely different.
Chironectes Cuv.
Chironectes rubro-fuscus Garrett.
D. 3-13; A. 9; V. 6; P. 11; C. 9.
A single example of this species now before me has been preserved in spirits several years. It is in fine condition, though the colors are much faded. The general shape is oblong-oval, and much compressed. The thickness at the base of the head enters about five and a half times in the total length. The whole surface is covered with crowded minute hispid asperities, and very small, remote, cutaneous, tuft-like appendages. The head, as viewed in profile, is irregularly rounded, the chin forming the anterior end, being slightly in advance of the mouth. The eyes are exceedingly small, elliptically oval in shape, their greatest diameter being only three-twentieths of an inch. Their distance from the margin of the upper jaw is five times their own length. The mouth is vertical. On the top of the snout, midway between the eyes and the end of the upper jaw, is a long setaceous appendage, articulated to a tubercle, and tufted at the end. On the cranium there are two stout, curved processes, which project posteriorly, the hind one the largest, and both enveloped in the integuments. The dorsal fin takes its origin at a point corresponding to the middle of the total length of the fish, caudal exclusive. Its height equals the length of its own base. The caudal trunk and fin are slightly oblique to the horizontal axis of the body. The anal fin is small and rounded off along its outer margin. The rays in all the fins have their ends slightly prolonged in little fleshy points. The color, as noted from the living fish, is dark red, with irregular, cloud-like markings and spots, dusky gray. Everywhere maculated with small, irregular, dusky spots, which are the most numerous on the belly. A few deep black maculations on the vertical fins and scattering ones on the body. The interior of the mouth and tongue are mottled with red and white. Irides pale flesh color; cornea black. The smooth inner surfaces of the pectoral and ventral fins are intensely red.
Length, 8½ inches.
Habitat, Sandwich Islands.
Remarks.—This fine large species is very rare. As compared with the C. leprosus from the same location, it is much larger, more compressed, the eyes much smaller and the ground color is quite different. In the leporina the eyes are less than twice their own diameter distant from the anterior margin of the upper jaw. In our fish they are five diameters distant from the same point.
Chætodon L.
Chætodon multicinctus Garrett.
D. 13-24; A. 3-19; V. 1-5; P. 14; C. 3, 1, 8, 7, 1, 2.
Form oval. The head enters about four and a half times in the total length. The upper line of profile from the snout to the dorsal fin is nearly straight, rising at an angle of 60°. The snout is short. The eye is large, circular, its diameter one-third of the length of the head, and placed just midway between the opercular corner and the end of the snout. The preopercular margin exhibits a few small dentations. The scales are moderate size.
The dorsal and anal fins are posteriorly rounded off. The hinder margin of the caudal is truncate. The anterior soft ray of the ventrals is slightly prolonged beyond the margin of the fin.
Color creamy-yellow. The sides are marked with five vertical, yellowish-brown, diffuse stripes, the two anterior ones terminate on the side of the belly, and the others at the base of the anal fin. There is a slight indication of a sixth one along the basal half of the soft portion of the dorsal fin. Each scale is marked with a faint, yellowish-brown dot. A yellow line starts from a point above the base of the ventral, follows the line of the belly, and unites with a black one which traverses the anal fin. A blue black spot in front of the dorsal fin gradually passes into the ocular fascia, the latter being brown above and yellow beneath the eye. Irides chrome-yellow. Upper lip brown. A vertical black stripe, shaded off anteriorly with vermillion, marks the middle of the caudal trunk. The dorsal spines and filaments are orange-yellow, the inter-radial membrane is colorless. The soft portion of the dorsal and anal are ochre-yellow along their middle-third, the former with a broad yellow and the latter with a pale greenish margin. The two colors on either fin separated by a narrow black and white line. The caudal is colorless, with a basal vertical luniform bar, its convex margin anterior. The ventrals are whitish, and the pectorals colorless.
Length, 3½ inches.
Habitat, Sandwich Islands.
Remarks.—Two examples of this species were procured in Honolulu market.
Ophisurus Lac.
Ophisurus Californiensis Garrett.
This Ophisurus is more robust than usual in species of this genus. The head is large, swollen beneath, and comprises about one-twelfth of the entire length. The depth, taken at the origin of the anal fin, enters about twenty-eight times in the total length, or twice in the length of the head. The pectorals are large, elliptical in shape, their tips reaching posteriorly nearly as far as the origin of the dorsal fin. The dorsal and anal fins are well developed, the latter passing over a base considerably more than half the length of the fish.
The color in spirits is brown, paler on the lower half of the head, and cinereous along the throat and belly. A dorsal row of large, roundish, brownish-black spots extends from the occipital region to the end of the tail; the spots being intersected by the fin, and the two anterior ones are saddle shaped. A second row, disposed alternately to the first, occupies the upper half of the flanks. The head is irregularly maculated, the spots becoming paler beneath. The fins are light, brownish-grey; the dorsal and anal with a narrow darker margin, which is articulated with dark brown.
Length, 19½ inches.
Habitat, Lower California.
Remarks.—The specimen described above, was captured at Margarita Bay, by Mr. White, of the whaler Rambler, to whom I am indebted for a valuable collection of objects of natural history.
Dr. Ayres remarked that he had recently received from Tomales Bay specimens of an ichthyic type, new to this coast, and probably new to science. The species is closely allied to Scomberesox, though the jaws are but moderately elongated. It is judged worthy of record, even previous to any description, since no fish of that group has hitherto been found in the waters of California. The specimens exhibited to the Academy were from five to eight inches in length. He also gave notice of the acquisition of a specimen of Thrasher, taken in the Bay of San Francisco. The species is a very close representative of the Atlantic form Alopias vulpes, differing, however, in the proportions of the dorsal and anal fins, and in the position of the branchial apertures; the tail constitutes decidedly more than half of the entire length. The specimen is about five feet in length.
Dr. Ayres presented a specimen of Barnacles, found floating at sea in lat. 33° 8´ N., lon. 129° 35´ W., by Capt. Geo. Goodrum of San Francisco. They were of the Anatifa type, but exhibited the remarkable feature of being attached, not to some extraneous substance, as a fragment of wreck, for instance, but to a spherical, fleshy receptacle, apparently a portion of their own system. This receptacle was of a light, yellowish color, about the size of a small orange, which it somewhat resembled in aspect. To it were attached, by the usual flexible pedicles, about a dozen Barnacles, allied to Anatifa, as above indicated, but differing from it in the breadth of the dorsal plate, and in the projection of a strong keel at the base of both dorsal and lateral plates. When this specimen was procured, myriads like it covered the sea for miles in the track of the vessel. Barnacles aggregated in this manner of growth do not appear to have been hitherto reported.