464 



FISHERY BULLETIN OF THE FISH AND WILDLIFE SERVICE 



THE SEA SNAILS. FAMILY LIPARIDAE 



The sea snails are tadpole-shaped, soft-bodied 

 little fishes; and like the lumpfish (p. 459) most of 

 them have a sucking disk on the chest, supported 

 by the vestigial rays of the ventral fins. 41 But 

 the skin is smooth, and without tubercles, and 

 the spiny and soft parts of the dorsal fin are 

 continuous as a single fin. The more than 115 

 species that are known are widely distributed in 

 Arctic, North Temperate, and Antarctic Seas, 

 and from the intertidal zone down to 2,000 fath- 

 oms or so. 42 The Gulf of Maine harbors two 

 species. A third (Careproctus ranulus Goode and 

 Beane, 1879) is known only from the vicinity of 

 Halifax, Nova Scotia; from Middleground off east- 

 ern Nova Scotia, 43 from the Grand Banks, and off 

 southeastern Newfoundland; perhaps from the es- 

 tuary of the St. Lawrence River, also. 44 



We include it in the following Key, on the chance 

 that it may be encountered in the deeper parts 

 of our Gulf, sooner or later. 



KEY TO GULF OF MAINE SEA SNAILS 



1. The spiny (front) and soft (rear) portions of the dorsal 



fin are separated by a notch Sea snail, p. 464 



There is no notch between the spiny portion and the 

 soft portion of the dorsal fin 2 



2. The anal fin has only about as many rays (26-29) as 



the pectoral fin (28-33) ; there are two separate 

 nostrils; the body is opaque, variously striped or 



spotted Striped Sea Snail, p. 466 



The anal fin has many more rays (at least 48) 

 than the pectoral (27-28) ; there is only a single 

 nostril; the body is translucent in life and 

 colorless Careproctus ranulus 45 



Sea snail Neoliparis atlanticus Jordan and 



Evermann, 1898 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 2107. 



Description.- — Perhaps the most noticeable char- 

 acter of this and of the striped sea snail (p. 466) 



*i Some species of the genera ParaUparia and Amitra have lost the sucking 

 disk. 



« See V. Burke (Bull. 150, U. S. Nat. Mus., 1930) for a study of the family 

 as a whole, giving descriptions and geographic ranges of all known species. 



*• McKenzie and Homans, Proc. Nova Scotian Inst. Sci., vol. 19, 1938, 

 p. 278. 



« We cannot judge whether the Careproctus reported by Vladykov and 

 Tremblay (Natural. Canad., vol. 62 (ser. 3, vol. 6), 1935, p. 81) from the 

 estuary of the St. Lawrence River as C. longipinnis was indeed identical with 

 the fish from north of the Faroe Islands that was described under that name 

 by C. V. Burke (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. Ser. 8, vol. 9, 1912, p. 510), or whether 

 it is referable to ranulus: as seems the more likely on geographic grounds. 



< e For a detailed description, with illustrations, see Goode and Bean, 

 Smithson. Contrib. Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, p. 275, vol. 31, pi. 70, flgs. 251-251a, 

 251b. 



is that it is shaped more like a tadpole than like 

 the conventional fish, thanks to the cylindrical 

 fore part of the trunk, together with the broad 

 rounded snout and fat soft belly, and the abrupt 

 flattening (sidewise) of the body close behind 

 the vent. It is also provided with a sucking disk 

 similar to that of the lumpfish (p. 459). In side 

 view the body is deepest abreast the pectoral fins 

 (about four times as long as it is deep, not count- 

 ing the caudal fin), tapering evenly to a moderate 

 caudal peduncle. The head is flat above, the 

 mouth is at the tip of the snout and moderately 

 wide, and the jaws are armed with many small 

 teeth arranged in bands. 



Figure 243. — Sea snail {Neoliparis atlanticus), side view 

 (above) and ventral view (below) of adult male. After 

 Garman. 



The dorsal fin (6 spines and 26 soft rays) origi- 

 nates close behind the pectorals and runs con- 

 tinuously to the base of the caudal though it is 

 separate from the latter. The dorsal spines are 

 longer in males than in females, and project further 

 beyond the membrane, giving the fin a fringed 

 appearance. The anal fin (23 to 27 rays) originates 

 under or a little behind the origin of the soft 

 portion of the dorsal fin to which it corresponds in 

 size and outline. The pectoral fins are not only 

 very large and fanlike, but their bases run forward 

 under the throat, where they expand into second- 

 ary lobes or wings with fringed edges. The ven- 

 tral fins appear only as a circle of low knobs in the 

 center of the sucking disk, which is situated on 

 the throat between the pectoral fins. The skin 

 is scaleless, and it is smooth except at spawning 

 time, when the male becomes rough with small 

 prickles. 



