NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 255 



Lycodidse Gilnther, Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum, vol. iv. 



pp. 317, 319, 1862. 

 Gadida? and Ophidini pt. Reinhardt. 

 Blennioidei and Ophidoidei pt. Bleeher. 

 Blennioidse pt. Gill, Kroyer. 

 Lycodidse and Blenniidse Gilnther. 



Teleocephali with an elongated subanguilliform body, with the soft-rayed 

 dorsal and anal fins confluent with the pointed caudal, invested like the body 

 in a loose skin ; the anus submedian or anterior, and with a raised margin ; 

 branchial apertures more or less restricted to the sides ; minute jugular or 

 obsolete ventral fins, and typically two rudimentary pyloric cseca. 



This diagnosis is believed to embody the peculiar external characters which 

 mark the group as a family, and all the types here included in it are evident- 

 ly closely related. Reinhardt, who first made known two of the genera, Ly- 

 codes and Gymnelis, widely scattered them, referring the former to the 

 Grobiidae next to " Zoarceeus,''' 1 between which and Anarrhicas it was said to 

 be intermediate, while Gymnelis was placed in the family Ophidiini. Rich- 

 ardson, with his usual cautiousness in differing from others, followed Rein- 

 hardt, but expressed his opinion concerning the close affinity between Lycodes 

 and Gymnelis. Kroyer approximated the three genera, referring them to the 

 Blenniidse next to Clinns. 



Swainson, in 1839, proposed a family " Zoarchidre " for fishes of the first 

 order Acanthopteryges, having the body "anguilliform ; dorsal, caudal and 

 anal fins united ; the rays soft." To the family so vaguely defined were referred 

 the genera Zoarccs and Anarrhicas. Zoarces has essentially the characters 

 mentioned ; but, as Anarhicas cannot be truly said to be either " anguilliform," 

 or have the "dorsal, caudal and anal fins united," or "the rays soft," if 

 by the latter term is meant articulated or branched, it is not quite evident 

 why the genus should have been placed in the family. 



Giinther has referred Zoarces to the Blenniidse, although it has neither the 

 spinous portion as much developed as the soft, or the whole fin composed of 

 spines, nor is it destitute of pyloric appendages,* as required by his diagnosis 

 of the family. On the other hand, the same gentleman has proposed a family 

 Lycodidse for Lycodes (including Lycodes, Phycocates and Ilyocoztes), Gym- 

 nelis and a new genus founded on a poor description of a species, called Ophi- 

 drum P arrii by Ross. The family thus composed is said to bear " a strong 

 resemblance to some of the Blennoid fishes, yet several of them show pyloric 

 appendages ; they have neither spines in the fins, nor a prominent anal pa- 

 pilla." In all such differential characters, Zoarcesj agrees with the trut- 

 Lycodidse. But, while Zoarces is approximated to Lycodes and Gymnelis, it 

 appears to be somewhat doubtful whether Ily0ca2t.es and Phycoccetes of Jenyns. 

 as well as Giinther's Uronectes, belong to the same family with them, not- 

 withstanding the reference of the first two genera to the genus Lycodes itself. 



The reviewer has heretofore suggested that " Zoarces and Lycodes form a 

 peculiar family,":): but had previously, in the " Catalogue of the Fishes of the 

 Eastern Coast," followed Reinhardt and Richardson in retaining them in the 

 family of Blennioids. Gymnelis, which should have been approximated to 

 them, was inadvertently omitted. 



The following synopsis shows the distinctive characters of the several group? 

 and genera : 



* Gunther, it is true, also refuses pyloric appendages in the diagnosis of Zoarces itself; but on 

 examination of the European as well as American species, I find two developed, as in Lycodes 

 and Gymnelis, in which he admits their presence. 



t Tae posterior short spines or atrophied rays of the dorsal fin are not truly analogous to the 

 spines of the dorsal fin, as is evident from their position. 



% Gill, Proc. Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila., 1802, p. 501. 



1863.] 



