Ayresia, n. g.[7]
Generic characters.—Form elongated, suboval; the outline more curved above than below. Scales large, finely pectinated, completely covering the body and head, except in front of orbit; smaller on head, and becoming very small where they extend over parts of the fins and tail.
Teeth numerous, acute, entire, the anterior row largest; those below larger than above, and flattened posteriorly. A few smaller ones crowded behind these near symphysis. Pharyngeals villiform.
Premaxillars protractile, the upper arched, twice as high as wide, the lower shutting within it.
Preoperculum entire, a very small obtuse spine at angle of operculum.
Pectorals rather long and pointed. Caudal deeply forked, the lobes acute. Dorsal long, anal moderate.
Differs from Pomacentrus (Lacepede) chiefly in a more arched dorsal outline, armed operculum and unarmed preoperculum, pointed fins and tail, proportions of fins.
The dorsal outline appears to become much more convex with age, chiefly from deposit of fat on the occiput, as is the case in some Labroids, as for instance, L. pulcher (Ayres) and Julis modestus (Girard), the latter also growing higher in proportion to its length throughout. The dotted line represents the dorsal outline of a specimen one-fourth larger than that figured, but otherwise closely like it.
Ayresia punctipinnis, Cooper, n. sp., State coll. No. 596. [[Fig. 18.]]
