The Blennies : Blenniidae 



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Ateleopodidae. The small family of Ateleopodida includes long- 

 bodied, deep-water fishes of the Pacific, resembling Macrourus, 

 but with smooth scales. The group has the coracoids as in 

 Brotididaz, and the actinosts are united in an undivided plate. 

 Ateleopus japonicus is the species taken in Japan. 



Suborder Haplodoci. We may here place the peculiar family 

 of Batrachoididce, or toadfishes. It constitutes the suborder 

 of Haplodoci (txTtkoos, simple; SOKOS, shaft) from the sim- 

 ple form of the post-temporal. This order is characterized 

 by the undivided post-temporal bone and by the reduction 

 of the gill-arches to three. A second bone behind the post- 

 temporal connects the shoulder-girdle above to the vertebral 

 column. The coracoid bones are more or less elongate, suggest- 

 ing the arm seen in pediculate fishes. 



The single family has the general form of the Cottida, the 

 body robust, with large head, large mouth, strong teeth, and 

 short spinous dorsal fin. The shoulder-girdle and its structures 

 differ little from the blennioid type. There are no pseudo- 

 branchiae and the tail is homocercal. The species are relatively 

 few, chiefly confined to the warm seas and mostly American, 

 none being found in Europe or Asia. Some of them ascend 

 rivers, and all are carnivorous and voracious. None are valued 



FIG. 480. Leopard Toadfish, Opsanus pardus (Goode & Bean). Pensacola. 



as food, being coarse-grained in flesh. The group is probably 

 nearest allied to the Trachinidce or Uranoscopidce. 



Opsanus tau, the common toadfish, or oyster-fish, of our 

 Atlantic coast, is very common in rocky places, the young 

 clinging to stones by a sucking-disk on the belly, a structure 



