Family Serranide


the bonaci cardenal. Mycteroperca bonaci; the bonaci arara
sells in our markets as black grouper. Mvycteroperca microlepis


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(Cuuruoagy 1ai}y)


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The Bass and their Relatives 541


is commonest along our South Atlantic coast, not reaching
the West Indies, and Mycteroperca rubra, which is never red,
enters the Mediterranean. Mycteroperca falcata is known in
the markets as scamp, and Mycteroperca venadorum is a giant
species from the Venados Islands, near Mazatlan. Diploprion
bifasciatus is a handsome grouper-like fish with two black
cross-bands, found in Japan and India. Variola louti, red,
with crimson spots and a forked caudal fin, is one of the most
showy fishes of the equatorial Pacific.
Fie. 480.—Yellow-fin Grouper, Mycteroperca venenosa (Linneus). Havana.
The small fishes called Vaca in Cuba belong to the genus
_Hypoplectrus. Their extraordinary and unexplained variations
in color have been noticed on page 88. The common species—
blue, orange, green, plain, striated, checkered, or striped—
bears the name of Hypoplectrus unicolor (Fig. 431).
The Serranos.—In all the species known as jewfish and
grouper, as also in the Oxylabracide and most Centrarchide,
the maxillary bone is divided by a lengthwise suture which
sets off a distinct supplemental maxillary. This bone is want-
ing in the remaining species of Serranide, as it is also in those
forms already noticed which are familiarly known as bass.
The species without the supplemental maxillary are in general
smaller in size, the canines are on the sides of the jaws instead
of in front, and there is none of the hinged depressible teeth
which are conspicuous in the groupers. The species are abundant
in the Atlantic, but scarcely any are found in Polynesia, and
few in Japan or India.
