84-4 CONTRIBUTIONS TO NORTH AMERICAN ICHTHYOLOGY - IV. 



FAMILY CXXIV. LOPHIID/E. 



(Tlie Fishing Frof/s.) 



Head wide, depressed, very large. Body contracted, conical, taper- 

 ing rapidly backward from the shoulders. Mouth exceedingly large, 

 terminal, opening into an enormous stomach; upper jaw protractile; 

 maxillary without supplementary bone; lower jaw projecting ; both jaws 

 with very strong, unequal, cardiform teeth, some of the teeth canine- 

 like, most of them depressible; voiner and palatines usually with strong 

 teeth. Gill-openings comparatively large, in the lower axil of the pecto- 

 rals. Pseudobranchhe present. Gill-rakers none. Skin mostly smooth, 

 naked, with many dermal flaps about the head. Spinous dorsal of three 

 isolated, tentacle-like spines on the head, and three smaller ones behind, 

 which fcrm a continuous fin; second dorsal moderate, similar to the anal; 

 pectoral members scarcely geuiculated, each with two actinosts and with 

 elongate pseudobrachia; veutrals jugular, I, 5, widely separated. Py- 

 loric cceca present. A single genus, with three or more species, living 

 on sea-bottoms; remarkable for their great voracity. 



(Pediculati part, geiius Loplnus Giiuther, iii, 178-182.) 



466. L.OPIIIUS Liuna-iis. 

 hiny Frogs. 



(Artedi; Linnanis, Syst. Nat. 17f>8: type Lojtliinx jiixfatoriux L.) 



( 'haraetcrs of the genus included above. (Lojihins, the ancient name 

 of L. jtisctituriHN, ironi /.<><fi>s, a crest.) 



2. L.. li*r:iforius. Fishing-frog; MonJ:-ftnh; Goon<--fmh ; All-month; 

 iii/li r. 



i. mottled, below white; mouth behind the liyoid bone im- 

 maculate: pectoials and caudal black attip; ]>eritonenm black. Body 

 depressed, tapering, sea reely longer than head. Humeral spine; with 

 three points, of which the posterior is the longest. Head surrounded 

 with a I'lin-e of barbels; top of head, in young, with many strong- 

 spines. Anterior dor>al spine elongate, lleshy at tip. I). I-I-I, III 

 1<>: A. !>. L. .") feet. Noitli Atlantic, on both coasts; generally com- 

 mon, from Norih ( '.IK. linn northward. A lish of singular ugliness of 

 appearance. 



(Linn. Syst. N.ii.; Uiintlirr. iii, IT'.i: f.,>j>liinx ,tiii,-n<;iiiitn Cuv. & Val. xii, 380.) 



