DISCUSSION OF SPECIES AND THEIR DISTRIBUTION. 485 



Family LOPHIID^G. 



/ Lofidi, Rafinesque, Indice d'lttiologia Siciliana, L810, 12. 

 Lophiidte, Swainson, Nat. Hist. l'i-M.. 1839, n. L95. 



Lophiidce, Bonaparte, Catalogo Metod 1846-70. 



Lophiidte, Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. I'hifi.. 1863,89; A.rr. Families of Fishes, 1872, 2. — Jordan & Gilbert, 



Bull, x\ i. I'. S. N. M.. sil | fnl] descripti 



Lophioidei, Hi i i ki r, Tentamen, 1859, xvi. 



Bead wide, depressed, very large. Body contracted, conical, tapering rapidly back- 

 ward from the shoulders. Month exceedingly large, terminal, opening into an enormous 

 stomach; upper jaw protractile; maxillary without supplemental hone; lower jaw pro 

 jecting; both jaws with very strong, unequal, cardiform teeth, some of the teeth canine- 

 like, most of them depressible; vomer and palatines usually with strong teeth. Gill 

 openings comparatively large, in the lower axil of the pectorals. Pseudobranchiae present. 

 Gill rakers none. Skin mostly smooth, naked, with many dermal flaps aboul the head. 



Spinous dorsal of 3 isolated tentacle like spines on the head and 3 smaller ss behind, 



which form a continuous fin ; second dorsal moderate, similar to the anal; pectoral mem- 

 bers scarcely geniculated, each with two actinosts and with elongate pseudobrachia; 

 ventrals jugular, i. 5, widely separated. Pyloric coeca present. (Jordan and Gilbert.) 



The family Lophiidce has two genera, Lophius and Lophiomus, Gill. The latter is 

 distinguished by the diminished number of vertebrae (about 19), and has for its type Lophi- 

 minis setigerus, (\\a\i\). Gill, from the coasts of China and Japan. 1 



LOPHIUS, Artedi. 



Lophius, Artedi, Genera Piseium, 62.— Linn i i 9, Syst. Nat.,ed. \. 1756, i, 236— Ccvier, Regne Animal, ed. i, 



1817, 308.— Gunther, (.'lit Pish, Brit. Mus., n. 17s. 

 Lophiopsis, Gdichenot. 



Lophiid tishes, with head large, subcircular in front, cranial portion somewhat elevated, 

 lower jaw much projecting. Jaws with stout cardiform teeth in 2 or 3 alternate series: 

 vomer dentigerous. 



Branchiae .'5, the first branchial arch without lamellae. 



Anterior cephalic spine elongated, tentacular, with fleshy tip. Ventral tins very large, 

 winglike in young, decreasing with maturity, but always large. 



Body naked, head always sphacelous, especially in the young, and with strong coin 

 posite spines at angles of cephalic disc. 



Vertebrae in considerable number (27-31). Lophius has three species: L. piscatorius, 

 described below, and /.. budegassa, Spinola, confined to the .Mediterranean, ami distinguished 

 from all other Lophiids by its shorter second dorsal and its simple lanceolate humeral spine, 

 and Lophius Naresii, Giinther, found at a depth of 150 fathoms north of New Guinea, 115 

 fathoms, Philippines, and at the Admiralty Islands. 



The Mediterranean L. budegassa, Spinola, and the form from the China Sea, Lophiomus 

 setigerus, will doubtless also be found to have an abyssal range, since they, like the Atlantic 

 form, are well adapted to life at great depths. 



LOPHIUS PISCATORIUS, I.iwns. (Figures 100, 400 \. B.) 



Lophius piscatorius, law eus, Systema Naturae, ed. \, 1758, i. p. 236.— Gill, Proc. 1'. S. N. M., i. is;s. l'1:i 

 (selected synonymy, 1758-1872). — Goode, I'm.-. 1". s. V .\i., in, p. !(>;>. — GDnther, Challenger Re- 

 port, xxn. 1!'. — Vaillant, Exp. Sci. Travailleur et Talisman, 1888, 348. 



Lophius amerieanus, Storer., Hist. Fish. Mass., 1867, 101, pi. xvm, fig. 2. 



This well known form, which is found throughout the North Atlantic Basin and on the 

 east ranges south to the Cape of Good BEope, needs no description here, except the ver\ 

 brief diagnosis, given by Gill as follows: A Lophius w ith a tridentate humeral spine, 11-12 

 lays in the dorsal tin, and the mouth behind the hyoid bone immaculate. It occurs on the 

 west coast of Scandinavia north to latitude 69°-71°, and in America as far north as 



1 Gill, Proc. V. s. Nat. Mus.. i. p 552. 



