| Diagnosis: |
Dorsal spines (total): 16-18; Dorsal soft rays (total): 6-9; Anal spines: 3-3; Anal soft rays: 5-6; Vertebrae: 26-27. Diagnosis: compound urostyle and fused hypural plate; lower jaw strongly inclined; cheek musculature expanded (Ref. 72415).
Description: robust and relatively deep bodied (body depth 29.3-35.5% SL); greatest body depth at (males) or slightly behind (females) level of pelvic fin insertion; head short and deep; cheek deep; snout short and broad, jaws isognathous, with lower jaw strongly inclined and ventral section of adductor mandibulae muscle large and bulbous in anteroventral region of cheek; lips well develop and fleshy, lower lip fold discontinuous at symphysis; dorsal head profile straight to midorbit, bulbous to dorsal fin origin, markedly so in large males; dorsal body profile curving gently downward along length of dorsal fin base to short, deep caudal peduncle; ventral body profile more or less straight (males) or strongly convex (females); flanks with large, regularly imbricating, cycloid scales; a few deeply embedded, cycloid scales scattered over opercle and subopercle; cheek with small round, cycloid scales restricted to 1-2 rows at dorsoposterior margin; occipital region with numerous small, imbricating cycloid scales to level of midorbit; small cycloid scales over pectoral fin base, chest naked; belly scales slightly smaller with a gradual transition in size; scales on ventral portion of belly and anal-genital region of same size as lateral belly scales; upper lateral line originates behind occipital margin of opercle, ascends gradually to dorsal fin base reaching highest point at level of 10th to 12th dorsal fin spine, continues with half an intervening scale or no intervening scale between lateral line and dorsal-fin base; pored scales interspersed with more numerous nonpored scales along length of upper lateral line; lower lateral line short, usually consisting of only two or three pored scales interspersed among nonpored scales; upper lateral line separated from lower lateral line by 2 scales (excluding pored rows); caudal fin base with a single large pored scale medially (not included in longitudinal scale count) and numerous small scales over basal eighth of fin; dorsal fin spines gradually increase in length to 14th or 15th spine, remaining spines of equal length; soft dorsal and anal fins in males with tapering filamentous extensions reaching to basal third of caudal fin; in females soft dorsal and anal fins pointed but not produced and not reaching base of caudal fin; caudal fin rounded with 14 branched rays; appears lance-shaped, subacuminate when adducted; first pelvic fin ray longest in both sexes, reaching anal fin base in males, shorter in females; pectoral fin rounded, reaching vertical approximately at midpoint of spinous dorsal fin; ceratobranchial gill rakers small; epibranchial gill rakers bulbous; prominent visorlike, hanging pharyngeal pad developed on epibranchial 2, no microbranchiospines on outer face of 2nd, 3th, or 4th gill arches; outer row dentition on both premaxilla and dentary composed of relatively robust, recurved, unicuspid teeth; teeth evenly spaced along each jaw, 3-4 symphysial teeth on dentary somewhat enlarged and procumbently implanted; anteriorly in both jaws 3-4 short inner rows of recurved teeth taper to a single row posteriorly; lower pharyngeal jaw relatively gracile, with narrow horns and a short blunt keel; dentigerous surface sparsely covered with bicuspid teeth; posterior row teeth elongate, erect, closely spaced bicuspids with strongly hooked major cusp and smaller minor cusp; anteriorly lower pharyngeal jaw teeth weakly erect, somewhat shouldered, robust, unicuspids; first infraorbital with 4 sensory canal pores and followed by a single, elongate, dorsoposteriorly oriented infraorbital element; 4 pores perforate the laterosensory canal in the dentary, the anguloarticular lacks a canal, 6 pores perforate the preopercular canal; pharyngeal apophysis with an extensive exoccipital contribution to ventral articular surface of the apophysis; hypurals 1+2 and 3+4 fused into a single element, with resultant compound hypural plate fused with urostyle, even in the smallest specimens; adductor mandibulae muscle well developed, in large individuals the anterioventral portion of the muscle complex is enlarged and voluminous, lending a characteristic bulge to the cheek (Ref. 72415). Coloration: preserved: ground color more or less uniformly pale brown; each flank scale with narrow pigmented bar on exposed posterior edge; scale centers with traces of a silvery iridescence, most strongly marked midlaterally and over the bloated abdomen of female specimens; no clearly defined dark longitudinal band or series of midlateral blotches extending from the eye to the caudal peduncle (males) or end of the caudal fin (females), however the absence of this feature may be an artifact of long-term preservation; both males and females with a heavily pigmented, scaleless opercular blotch; soft dorsal, anal, and caudal fins in males heavily maculate with alternating rows of light and dark maculae creating a striped patterning; in females these fins are hyaline and lack rows of maculae, and a single large black blotch is present in the soft dorsal fin (Ref. 72415). |
