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Red Grouper; Cherna Americana — Part 3
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Mycteroperca boulengeri is a small species known only from Mazatlan, where it is rather common in the astillero. It reaches 15 inches in length, is olive-gray in color, covered everywhere with irregular oblong black markings.
M. venenosa, the yellow-finned grouper, rockfish, or bonaci de piedra, occurs from the Florida Keys and the Bahamas southward among the West Indies. It is a large, handsome fish, reaching 3 feet in length, and is reputed poisonous. In life it is a clear olive-green, livid blue or pearly below; upper parts everywhere with broad reticulations and curved blotches of bright, clear, light green; entire body and head covered with round orange-brown spots; angle of mouth orange within; iris orange; breast slightly rosy; dorsal olive-brown with whitish blotches.
M. apua, the bonaci cardenal, is found from the Florida keys to Brazil in deeper water than M. venenosa, from which it differs only in colour and of which it has usually been regarded as a subspecies. But we have never seen any specimens intermediate between the two, and it seems best to regard them as distinct species.
Colour in life of an example 2 feet long, intense scarlet red above, grayer below; small black spots above, larger red ones below; base of dorsal and caudal deep red, the edge of dorsal, caudal, and anal black; pectoral spotted at base, then blackish, thence broadly yellow. Younger examples scarlet brown above, varying from vermilion to gray.
M. bonaci, the black grouper, bonaci arara or aguaji, is found from the Florida Keys through the West Indies to Brazil. It is abundant about Key West, where it is the only fish known as black grouper. It reaches a length of 2 or 3 feet and a weight of 50 pounds. Large individuals are taken with hook and line and are said to be very game. Small ones are seined alongshore.
M. xanthosticta is known only from the Snapper Banks off the west coast of Florida and is rare. It reaches a large size, examples 4 feet in length having been taken.
M. jordani, the cabrilla de astillero or baya, is an important food-fish at Mazatlan and Guaymas. It reaches a length of 2 to 3 feet and is common in bays and protected waters.
Colour, olive-gray, blackish above, with obscure clouds of darker olive in the form of diffuse dark blotches, these oblong quadrate and arranged in 4 series; lower parts pale olive; sides of head with wavy black streaks.
M. microlepis, the gag, occurs from Beaufort, North Carolina, and around the coast of Florida to Pensacola. It is not yet known from the West Indies. At Key West it is a common fish at all times, reaches a weight of 10 pounds, and is highly esteemed.
Colour, variable, those from shallow water being lighter and more variegated; those from deeper water plain brownish gray, paler below, with no distinct spots or rivulations, but with faint traces of darker spotting, which disappear in alcohol; dorsal dark olive, the tip of soft part blue-black, the edge narrowly white; caudal black with bright blue shadings, its edge white; anal deep indigo blue, olive at base, its edge white; pectoral olive, dusky toward the tip; ventrals blackish, the first ray tipped with white.
M. interstitialis is known only from the coasts of Cuba. It is rather common in the Havana market. It reaches a foot in length and is a good food-fish.
M. dimidiata is a rare species known only from Havana. Specimens only a few inches long have been seen.
M. xenarcha occurs about rocky islands on the pacific coast from Mazatlan to Peru. It is fairly abundant and reaches 2 feet in length.
M. rubra is of rather wide distribution. It occurs among the West Indies and south to Brazil, in the eastern Atlantic about islands, and in the Mediterranean.
M. pardalis, the cabrilla piritita, is known from the Gulf of California and Mazatlan, where it is rather common about rocky islands, it reaches 2 feet in length.
M. olfax, the yellow grouper, reaches 2 to 3 feet in length, and is rather common about Panama and the Galapagos Islands.
M. ruberrima is a rare species known only from Abingdon Island of the Galapagos group.
M. rosacea is a beautifully coloured, but very rare species known only from Angel Island, Gulf of California, and Mazatlan. Colour in life, nearly everywhere brick-red; tips of pectorals dusky.
M. falcata, the bacalao or abadejo, is found in the West Indies and north to Bermuda. It grows to 2 or 3 feet in length and is an important food-fish at Havana. Colour in life, brown above, sides grayish brown, faintly covered with darker spots, which disappear in spirits; eyes and angle of mouth yellowish; ventrals dusky, the outer portion bluish black; pectoral with a whitish edge.