Capros.—Body compressed and elevated. Mouth very protractile. Scales rather small, spiny. First dorsal with nine spines, anal with three. Ventral fins well developed. Minute teeth in the jaws and on the vomer; none on the palatine bones.
The “Boar-fish” (C. aper) is common in the Mediterranean, and not rarely found on the south coast of England.
Allied are Antigonia and Diretmus, known from a few individuals obtained at Madeira and Barbadoes; they are probably fishes which but rarely come to the surface.
Equula.—Body more or less compressed, elevated or oblong, covered with small, deciduous, cycloid scales. Mouth very protractile. Minute teeth in the jaws; none on the palate. One dorsal. Formula of the fins: D. 8/1516, A. 3/14, V. 1/5. The lower præopercular margin serrated.
Fig. 200.—Equula edentula.
Small species, abundant in the Indo-Pacific, disappearing on the coasts of Japan and Australia. Some eighteen species have been described.
Gazza is very similar to Equula, but armed with canine teeth in the jaws.
Other genera referred to this family are Lactarius (L. delicatulus, common, and eaten on the East Indian coasts), Seriolella, Paropsis, and Platystethus.