Mendosoma from the coast of Chili, and Nemadactylus from Tasmania, are allied genera.
Latris.—Dorsal fin deeply notched; the spinous portion with seventeen spines; anal fin many-rayed. None of the simple pectoral rays passes the margin of the fin. Teeth villiform; no canines. Præoperculum minutely serrated. Scales small.
Two species only are known from Tasmania and New Zealand, which belong to the most important food-fishes of the Southern Hemisphere. Latris hecateia or the “Trumpeter,” ranges from sixty to thirty lbs. in weight, and is considered by the colonists the best flavoured of any of the fishes of South Australia, Tasmania, and New Zealand, and consumed smoked as well as fresh. The second species, Latris ciliaris, is smaller, scarcely attaining a weight of twenty lbs., but more abundant; it is confined to the coast of New Zealand.
Fig. 178.—Skull of Scorpæna percoides; so, Suborbital ring; pr, Præoperculum; st, Bony stay, connecting the sub-orbital with the præoperculum.
Seventh Family—Scorpænidæ.
Body oblong, more or less compressed, covered with ordinary scales, or naked. Cleft of the mouth lateral or subvertical. Dentition feeble, consisting of villiform teeth; and generally without canines. Some bones of the head armed, especially the angle of the præoperculum, its armature receiving additional support by a bony stay, connecting it with the infraorbital ring. The spinous portion of the dorsal fin equally or more developed than the soft and than the anal. Ventrals thoracic, generally with one spine and five soft rays, sometimes rudimentary.
This family consists of carnivorous marine fishes only; some resemble the Sea-Perches in form and habits, as Sebastes, Scorpæna, etc., whilst others live at the bottom of the sea, and possess in various degrees of development those skinny appendages resembling the fronds of seaweeds, by which they either attract other fishes, or by which they are enabled more effectually to hide themselves. Species provided with those appendages have generally a coloration resembling that of their surroundings, and varying with the change of locality. The habit of living on the bottom has also developed in many Scorpænoids separate pectoral rays, by means of which they move or feel. Some of the genera live at a considerable depth, but apparently not beyond 300 fathoms. Nearly all are distinguished by a powerful armature either of the head, or fin spines, or both; and in some the spines have been developed into poison organs.
The only fossil representative known at present is a species of Scorpæna from the Eocene of Oran.
Sebastes.—Head and body compressed; crown of the head scaly to, or even beyond, the orbits; no transverse groove on the occiput. Body covered with scales of moderate or small size, and without skinny tentacles. Fin-rays not elongate; one dorsal, divided by a notch into a spinous and soft portion, with twelve or thirteen spines; the anal with three. No pectoral appendages. Villiform teeth in the jaws, on the vomer, and generally on the palatine bones. Vertebræ more than twenty-four.