Classification of Fishes 



373 



Nomenclature. A family in zoology is an assemblage of 

 related genera. The name of a family, for convenience, always 

 ends in the patronymic ides, and it is always derived from the 

 leading genus, that is, the one best known or earliest studied. 

 Thus all lampreys constitute the family Petromyzonidce. An 

 order may contain one or more families. An order is a division 

 of a larger group; a family an assemblage of related smaller 

 groups. Intermediate groups are often recognized by the pre- 

 fixes sub or super. A subgenus is a division of a genus. A 

 subspecies is a geographic race or variation within a species; a 

 super-family a group of allied families. Binomial nomenclature, 

 or the use of the name of genus and species as a scientific name, 

 was introduced into science as a systematic method by Lin- 

 naeus. In the tenth edition of his Systema Naturae, published 

 in 1758, this method was first consistently applied to animals. 

 By common consent the scientific naming of animals begins 

 with this year, and no account is taken of names given earlier, 

 as these are, except by accident, never binomial. Those authors 

 who wrote before the adoption of the rule of binomials and 

 those who neglected it are alike " ruled out of court." The 

 idea of genus and species was well understood before Linnaeus, 

 but the specific name used was not one word but a descriptive 

 phrase, and this phrase was changed at the whim of the differ- 

 ent authors. 



Nomenclature of Trunkfishes. Examples of such names are 

 those of the West Indian trunkfish, or cuckold (Ostracion 



FIG. 239. Horned Trunkfish, Cowfish, or Cuckold, Lactophrys tricornis (Linnaeus) . 



Charleston, S. C. 



tricorne, Linnaeus). Lister refers to a specimen in 1686 as 

 " Piscis triangularis capiti cornutu cui e media cauda cutanea 



