Mr. Darwin’s collection contains a species of this genus procured in
King George’s Sound, New Holland, which, from the bad state of
preservation of the specimen, it is scarcely possible to identify with
certainty. Possibly it may be new, as it does not seem to accord very
exactly with any of those described in the “Histoire des Poissons;” but
I shall not consider it such, nor do more than point out a few of its
more obvious characters.
It is not determinable, whether it was originally one of the naked
species of this genus, or whether the scales have been rubbed off, but
probably the former. The suborbital and preopercular spines are
strong, and considerably developed: the former reaches back further
than the maxillary, and nearly to the posterior part of the orbit, and
has another very small spine at its base. The lower jaw advances
beyond the upper. The head is about one-third of the entire length.
The eyes are large, their diameter being contained about three and a
half times in the length of the head. The dorsal commences in a line
with the ascending margin of the preopercle. The first spine is half
the length of the second; the second is a little shorter than the
third, which is longest, and equals two-thirds of the depth of the
body; the fourth and succeeding ones decrease very gradually; the soft
portion of this fin is a little higher than the hinder part of the
spinous. The first anal spine is rather more than half the length of
the second, which is the strongest of the three, though not much
longer than the third. The pectorals are rather pointed, and a little
shorter than the head. The ventrals are attached a little behind the
pectorals, and are not very much shorter than those fins.
The following is the fin-ray formula:
D. 13/9; A. 3/6; C. 11, &c.; P. 11; V. 1/5.
Length 4 inches 6 lines.
The species to which this approaches nearest would seem to be the _A.
niger_ of Cuvier and Valenciennes; but there is no appearance of the
small elevations on the skin resembling hairs, which those authors
mention in their description of this last, and, on the whole, I am
inclined to consider it as distinct.
AGRIOPUS HISPIDUS. p. 38.
Notwithstanding what I have advanced in regard to this species, further
consideration has inclined me to suspect, that it may prove ultimately
only the young of the _A. Peruvianus_. In that case, however, it would
appear that the absence of vomerine teeth can only be assigned as a
character of this genus in the adult state.