John Lort Stokes

“ The hind feet are twice the size and breadth of the fore, with four long toes, the two first are webbed as far as the first joint, and the other are strongly webbed to the apex of last joint; the last or outer toe has no nail. From the apex of tail, a central highly notched ridge runs up about midway of it, and there splitting into two branches, passes up on each side of the spine over the back, as far up as the shoulders, gradually diminishing in height to the termination. ”

“ The outer branchial rakers are long.
The narrow, slightly pitted, scaleless disk of the preoperculum bounds the scaly cheek behind and below, and has an entire edge with neither spine nor acute angle at the bend. The other pieces of the gill cover are closely covered with scales, only a little smaller than those of the body. The pretty wide thin inter-operculum lays freely over the gill membranes, and covers them when shut up. ”

“ The coracoid bone is notched above the pectoral fin, the notch being terminated below by a spine, and above by an acute corner. There are no scales between the cranial ridges on the top of the head, nor in the concave inter-orbital space. A single row of five or six scales traverses the cheek below the infra-orbitar ridge. The temples before the upper limb of the preoperculum are densely scaly, as is also the gill flap above the upper opercular ridge. ”

“ The rays of the caudal are alternate. The ventral spine is short and blunt, and is armed with short divaricated teeth, some of which are forked. The roughness runs forward on the chine or ventral line, until it passes gradually into the ordinary scales of the head. The dewlap is very slightly extensible, and but little developed. It is supported by six thread-like rays, which are all divided to the base.
A black band crosses the forehead from eye to eye. The upper half of the eye is bordered with black. The first dorsal exclusive of its last ray is of the same hue ”

“ Posterior wings sub-ovate, costal nervure long, sub-costal terminating only in two nervules, upper discocellular nervule wanting, discoidal nervure distinct and simple throughout its whole course to the outer margin, with a slight bend at its junction with the short disco-cellular which connects it with the median nervule: bristle in the male simple, retained by a corneous retinaculum arising from the posterior side of the sub-costal nervure, compound in the female, retained by a bunch of scales arising from the anterior side of the median nervure. ”

“ It has completely lost its colours, and shows neither the greenish bands of australis, nor the silvery marks of axillaris, it has, however, the form of the fins of the latter, with the number of rays exactly as in australis, a space between the ventrals and anus equal to the length of the head, scales on the body, as in axillaris, and similar pores on the head. Better materials are required to enable us to decide whether axillaris be a nominal species or not. ”

“ Pale brown, rather paler beneath; the scales of the back small, sharply keeled, forming longitudinal ridges, which converge together just at the base of the tail towards the two upper ridges formed by the keels of the scales of the tail; of the limbs rather larger. ”

“ Elytra with four double rows of impressed punctures, united at the end. Apex with two sharp points, the outer the longest, a notch between them; the elytra are vermilion, the base has a narrow transverse green band, an angular dark green spot before the middle, with two deep notches in front, and rounded behind, behind this and connected with it by a narrow sutural line of the same colour, is a fascia running quite across the angle in the middle of each elytron, and dilated on the suture, the tip of each elytron is broadly pointed with the same dark green ”

“ On the lower jaw the villiform teeth in front are more uniformly small, and there is an acute row of subulate teeth, which are tallest in the middle of the limbs of the jaw, beyond which, towards the corners of the mouth, there is an even row of very small teeth. At the end of the jaw there is a small canine on each side exterior to all the others. ”

“ All the wings black, the anterior with a small diaphanous spot near the base, below the median nervure; a larger one before the middle extending from the sub-costal to the radial nervure, divided by the median nervure into two unequal portions, the extremity of the cell marked by a crescent-shaped, metallic blue spot, beyond which are two diaphanous spots, one placed just below the origin of the second sub-costal nervule, the other much larger, divided by the last median nervule. ”

“ Head, antennæ, thorax, body and legs, black. Elytra yellowish red, tip and a large oblong spot on each black, the spot not reaching either margin of the elytron; under side of abdomen covered with silky hairs. The head is coarsely punctured, the thorax minutely chagrined with a deep indented spot on each side behind the middle. Elytra finely chagrined, with faint indications of two or three longitudinal lines on each.
Length 71⁄2 lines. ”

“ Temples scaly, no shields between the orbit and labial plates. Eyes rather small, lower lid opatic, covered with scales. Ears oblong, with a large scale in front. Body fusiform, roundish thick; scales of the back, broad, lozenge-shaped, keeled; keels ending in a dagger point; largest on the hinder parts of the throat and belly; transverse, ovate, 6-sided. Limbs four, strong. Toes elongate, compressed, unequal, clawed; tail short, conical, tapering, depressed ”

“ Posterior wings fulvous-brown at the base, marked with a clear fulvous spot, beyond this, fulvous with a transverse macular band, the margin itself black; cilia grey. Below, the anterior wings orange, with the outer margin narrowly black, before the apex are three or four black spots. Posterior wings greyish in the male, in the female nearly as above, but paler.
Head, thorax, and abdomen grey above, whitish below; antennae black, ringed with white.
The posterior wings of the male are of a somewhat castaneous hue above, and less clearly marked than those of the female. ”

“ The teeth, when examined with a lens, appear to be very acute and in nowise spherical. The pharyngeal teeth are subulate and acute, and of unequal heights. There seems to be only one inferior pharyngeal bone below ”

“ The body is as thick as a man's thigh, and it must have been a most powerful and dangerous enemy to any person in the water.
GONIONOTUS, Gray. Head ovate, depressed, covered with small rather acute scales, with 2 small frontal plates just over the rostral in front; rostral small, triangular, concave in the centre. Nostrils large, rather anterior, in the middle of a rather large plate, with a slight slit to the hinder edge; labial scales rather larger; the lower ones with a concavity in the middle of each scale. Eyes convex, rather large, pupil oblong; throat with small acute scales. ”

“ Legs rather long; anterior tibiæ with a curved spine on the inside, covered by the long scales of the tibiæ, anterior tarsi twice the length of the tibiæ, basal joint longer than the rest combined, second and third equal; the two combined equal to about two-thirds the length of the first, fourth and fifth very short, together about equal to the third. Second pair with the tibiæ about two-thirds as long as the tarsi, with numerous minute spines along their sides and two stout ones at the apex; joints of the tarsi having about the same relative proportions as in the anterior pair. ”

“ The latter genus is, moreover, described by M. Agassiz as possessing scales with toothed edges, and rough to the touch when the finger is drawn forwards. It has the simple intestinal canal without cæca, which is proper to the Labridæ. The intestine of Pseudochromis is similarly formed, the stomach being continuous with the rest of the alimentary canal, and not distinguished by any cul de sac. ”