Pargo de Raizero

Lutianus aratus (Gunther)

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This species occurs on the Pacific coast of tropical America from Panama to Mazatlan. It is a handsome fish, looking quite unlike the other species of the genus, and is generally common. It reaches a length of 2 feet, and is a good food-fish.

Colour in spirits, dark brown, somewhat paler below; centre of each scale yellowish silvery, these forming conspicuous silvery streaks along the back and sides, most distinct near the middle of the body; fins grayish, rather pale; membrane of soft dorsal dusky; ventrals dusky at tips; young with pale cross-bands formed by enlargement of the silvery spots in certain regions. Colour in life, dark green, the dark stripes on side dark brown, the interspaces yellowish white; belly coppery red; some bluish on cheek; pectoral maroon-red; ventrals salmon-red, the first ray white; anal creamy red.

GENUS OCYURUS GILL

The Rabirubias

This genus is allied to Lutianus, from which it differs notably in the structure of the skull, especially in the forward extension of the fronto-occipital crest. The single species shows numerous minor peculiarities, as in the form of the body, the large, well-forked tail, the small head, the increased number of gill-rakers, and the presence of pterygoid teeth.

The single species of this genus is the yellowtail or rabirubia, O. chrysurus. The yellowtail is found from southern Florida to Brazil, and is generally abundant. It is known from Biscayne Bay, Key West, and nearly all the West Indies. At Key West, where it is known as yellowtail and rabirubia, it is even more abundant than the lane snapper, and is the principal fish served at the hotels and boarding-houses in the fall. It is said to be plentiful throughout the year except during the winter, when cold weather drives them to deep water. During the warmer weather they are found at a depth of 2 fathoms or more, usually in about 5 fathoms, and generally about shoals where there is some mud bottom. The spawning-time is said to be in July, when they are found about the reefs from Miami to the Tortugas.

In Porto Rico it is called colorubia, and is an abundant and important food-fish. It attains a length of 2 feet and a weight of several pounds. At Key West the average weight is not more than a pound.

As a game-fish it is not without merit, it being a ready biter and a vigorous fighter. The commercial fishermen catch it with hook and line, using sardines for bait. At Key West it is hawked about the streets in the early morning, and just at the hour when one most desires to sleep, his slumbers are broken by the monotonous cry, "Yallertail-rabirubia! Yallertail-rabirubia!" first faint and distant, then growing stronger and stronger, passing under your window a distracting yell, and then gradually dying away as the peripatetic vender of the luscious "yallertail" vanishes down the street.

Colour in life, olivaceous above, rather pale and somewhat violettinged; a number of large, irregular deep yellow blotches on side of back; a deep yellow stripe from tip of snout straight through eye to caudal peduncle, there broadening and including all of tail above lateral line and behind dorsal fin; above this a pearly purplish area; below it a flesh-coloured or rosy area or band 2 scales broad, then a succession of about 16 narrow streaks alternately flesh-coloured and yellow, growing fainter progressively below; edges of scales yellow, their centres reddish; iris fiery red; lower parts of head flesh-colour, with some yellow spots; maxillary mostly yellow; caudal deep yellow, its edge reddish; dorsal chiefly yellow; anal faintly yellow.

GENUS RHOMBOPLITES GILL

This genus differs from Lutianus chiefly in cranial characters and in the extension of the villiform teeth over the pterygoid and hyoid bones. The form of the patch of vomerine teeth is also somewhat peculiar. The genus contains but a single species, R. aurorubens, the cagon de lo alto of our Spanish fishermen. It is found from Rio Janeiro northward through the West Indies to the Carolina coast, being probably most abundant about Cuba and on the Snapper Banks off the west coast of Florida. It is, however, nowhere very common, but is a good food-fish. Colour in life, vermilion above, paler below, faint brown lines running obliquely downward and forward, following the rows of scales; side with narrow sinuous streaks of golden yellow, some of them longitudinal, others, oblique; dorsal rosy, its margin chiefly orange; anal pale at base, rosy at extremity; pectoral yellowish; ventrals rosy; caudal and iris vermilion; inside of mouth dusky.

GENUS APSILUS CUVIER & VALENCIENNES

This very distinct genus has the cranial characters of Rhomboplites, with the scaleless fins, peculiar squamation, and dentition of Aprion. There are no teeth on the pterygoids, tongue, or hyoid bones. The dorsal fin is short.