i94i CATALOGUE OF FISHES OF TORTUGAS 283 



Family BATRACHOIDIDAE. Toadfishes 



Porichthys Girard, 1854 



For a revision of this and related genera the reader is referred to Hubbs and 

 Schultz, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 86, 1939, pp. 473-496, fig. 57. S. F. H. 



Porichthys porosissimus (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Only 3 specimens were secured. One was taken in the 10-fathom channel east 

 of Loggerhead banks, and the others in 35 to 40 fathoms south of Tortugas. 



W. H. L. 



Two specimens are included in the collection, 65 and 76 mm. long. The third 

 one according to Dr. Longley was about 80 mm. long. 



Atlantic coast of tropical America, ranging northward on the coast of the 

 southern states. S. F. H. 



Family GOBIESOCIDAE. Clingfishes 



When one tries to pick out a living clingfish from a bowl, it grips the glass 

 with its sucking disk. When seines or trawls disturb it in nature it must do the 

 same thing, for we caught specimens only when we brought up relatively large 

 and stable objects, chiefly loggerhead sponges, to which we found them holding 

 fast. For this reason collectors usually take them singly or in very small numbers, 

 making opportunities for comparison limited. The fishes are prevailingly thick- 

 skinned and secrete an abundant mucus which preserving fluids harden on their 

 bodies and fins, obscuring fine structures. What species composed the group, as 

 a result has not been easy to make out, but the number of names proposed much 

 exceeds the number of species. W. H. L. 



Gobiesox Lacepede 



Gobiesox Lacepede, Hist. nat. poiss., vol. 2, 1800, p. 595 (G. cephalus Lacepede). 

 Megaphalus Rafinesque, Anal, nat., 1815, p. 86 (substitute for Gobiesox Lacepede). 

 ?Sicyases Muller and Troschel, in Muller, Weigmann's Arch. Naturgesch., Jahrg. 9, 1843, 



p. 298 (S. sanguineus Muller and Troschel). 

 Sicyogaster Brisout de Barneville, Rev. zool., 1846, p. 144 (Gobiesox marmoratus Jenyns). 

 Caularchus Gill, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 14, 1862, p. 330 (Lepadogaster 



maeandricus Girard). 



Only one species of Gobiesox is at present known from Tortugas. Because of 

 the confused state of the record, however, its determination has necessitated 

 examination of much the greater part of west Atlantic material at present in 

 museum collections. None has the simple dentition supposed to distinguish the 

 genus Sicyases. 



The diagnostic features of Caularchus are said to be its long dorsal and anal 

 fins, with an almost equal number of rays in each, and its numerous vertebrae. 

 But the 13 to 15 dorsal rays of C. maeandricus do not exceed the 11 or 12 of 

 G. nigripinnis by more than these do the 8 to 10 of G. cephalus; nor are its 



