BY J. DOUGLAS OGILBY. 287 



Much uncertainty has prevailed as to the correct generic name 

 by which the group of small congers, of which halearica may be 

 taken as the type, should be known ; and though the name 

 Ophisoina, Swainson, has received the sanction of such high 

 authorities at Drs. Bleeker and Gilbert,* there can be no doubt 

 that this name, as also the Ariosoma of the same author, should 

 be discarded, as indeed has been done more recently by Drs. 

 Jordan and Evermann. 



The genus Ariosoma was first introduced into the system by 

 Swainson in the following terms : — " In the new genus Ariosoma, 

 Sw., the nostrils are not tubular, and the branchial aperture is in 

 front of the pectoral. Several of these tishes inhabit the Sicilian 

 shores, and they are richly coloured with silver reflections, very 

 different from the lurid hues of the true eels." Again in the 

 following year he defines the genus thusf : — " Spiracle before the 

 base of the pectoral; nostrils simple." It is probable that one of 

 the " several fishes " which Swainson had in mind when penning 

 the above diagnosis was De la Roche's Murcena halearica, the 

 silvery reflections and Sicilian locality being applicable thereto, 

 though the position assigned to the gill-opening is incorrect. 

 Swainson, however, neglected to specify a type for his genus, and 

 in this uncertainty it is therefore best to reject Ariosoma 

 altogether. 



On a subsequent page of this volume Swainson defines the 

 same genus under the name Ophisoina, correcting his former 

 omission by a reference to two species which he names respectively 

 0. obtusa and 0. acuta. The former of these is probably founded 

 on a young example of the conger {Leptocephalus conyer) and, this 

 being the type, the name cannot be used for the genus under 

 consideration, even though Ophisoma acuta be referable to 

 Muriena halearica. In any event the name would be distasteful 

 to many biologists because on several preceding pages of the same 



* Bleeker. Atl. Ichtli. iv. p. 27, 1864; Gilbert, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. xiv. 



a891, p. 349. 



+ Loc. cit. ii. p. 196, 1839. 



