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Amber-jack — Part 3
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Colour, clear blue above, silvery below; no bands or spots anywhere, except a small, black axillary spot, and a blue-green patch on back of caudal peduncle; pectoral bright yellow; anal and caudal yellow, the lobes blackish; ventrals yellow; young with a deep-blue spot above the eye in life.
Carangus lugubris is a rare species found about rocky islands in the tropics in both the Atlantic and Pacific. We have specimens from Clarion Island of the Revillagigedo group, from Cuba, and from off Mobile harbor. It reaches a length of 18 inches or more. It is rather common about Cuba, where it is regarded as poisonous, and its sale in the markets is forbidden. Its specific name, lugubris, mournful, is from its dark colour and especially its bad reputation, associated with the much dreaded Ciguatera, a disease resulting from fish-poisoning.
Carangus melampygus is widely distributed about islands in the tropical Pacific and in the East Indies. It is known from the Hawaiian Islands and from the Revillagigedos. It resembles C. lugubris, but the anterior profile is scarcely gibbous, and the side has many small dark-brown spots.
Carangus guara is one of the largest species of the genus. It reaches a length of 2 feet or more. It occurs in tropical parts of the Atlantic, in the Mediterranean, along the coasts of Africa, Brazil, and the Madeiras, but it is not certainly known from the West Indies. From other species it may be known by the absence of teeth on the vomer and palatines.
The genus Caranx differs from Carangus mainly in the dentition, the teeth being very small, granular, and are entirely lost with age; maxillary broad, body compressed, the fins without filaments.
Our single known species is the mojarra dorada, Caranx speciosus, which occurs in the Red Sea, the Indian Ocean, and in the tropical Pacific north to Cape San Lucas. It is frequent on sandy shores and is an excellent food-fish. It reaches a length of 2 feet.
Colour, brilliant golden; side with 6 broad, dusky crossbands, a narrow stripe between each pair of broader ones; opercular spot obsolete; a small black spot in axil: caudal lobes dusky on inner edge; no dark caudal spot.
The genus Carangoides is close to Carangus, but has the persistent teeth all small and in villiform bands on jaws, vomer, palatines, and tongue; lateral line scarcely arched; body oblong, not much elevated; none of the dorsal rays produced. The only known species is C. orthogrammus, thus far found only at Clarion Island.
The genus Citula differs from Carangoides mainly in having one or more of the anterior rays of the soft dorsal produced in filaments. The body has not the distorted form seen in Alectis but is more like that of Carangus. Species found chiefly in warm seas. The only species in our waters is C. dorsalis, the Pacific pompano. This fish occurs on sandy shores from Mazatlan to Panama. It reaches about 2 feet in length, but is not very abundant.
Colour, steel-blue above, silvery below, with golden reflections; fins all pale, tinged with yellowish; axil jet black; ventrals tipped with dusky; opercle dusky along the edge, blackish within; a dark spot on orbit above.
The genus Alectis is not essentially different from Carangus, the great change in form arising from no important modification of the skeleton. The changes due to age are surprisingly great, the young being almost orbicular, and the dorsal filaments exceedingly long. There are several tropical species. The only one in our waters is A. ciliaris, the thread-fish, cobbler-fish or sun-fish. This interesting and beautiful little fish occurs on both coasts of tropical America, ranging north to Mazatlan and Cape Cod. It is generally common southward about the Florida Keys and Cuba, and is a food-fish of some importance.
Head 3 1/3; depth 1 1/4 to 2; D. VI-I, 19; A. II-I, 16; scutes 12. Body oval, much compressed, highest at the elevated bases of the dorsal and anal fins; preorbital very deep; mouth nearly horizontal in adult, very oblique in the young; first rays of dorsal and anal filamentous, exceedingly long, in the young much longer than body, becoming shorter with age. Colour, bluish above, golden yellow below; a dark blotch on opercle; a black spot on orbit above; a black blotch on dorsal and one on anal in front.
The genus Hynnis is close to Carangus, but has the high, compressed, angular body of Selene, the dorsal and anal lobes not ending in filaments, and the caudal peduncle armed with a few weak plates as in Alectis. There are 2 species in our waters, H. cubensis, a rare species known only from Cuba, and H. hopkinsi recently described from Mazatlan. It attains a length of 2 feet.