354 88 



jedoch nicht zu unterscheiden" (p. 14). Of Hippocampus the skull is figured Ironi above (Fig. 11); 

 the figure and the corresponding text (p. 21) show the posttemporal interpreted as a pterotic, 

 the cpiotic as a parietal. 



LiLiJF.noKG (32, p. 437), in giving a diagnosis of the genus Siiiiynalluis JncUiding as sub- 

 genus Siphunostoma) says that all 3 opercular bones and 2-3 bristle-like branchiostegal rays 

 are present (about the opercular apparatus L., however, is mistaken, cfr. below. 



Describing Siphonostoma ti/phle L. (p. 443) states that the preoperculum is wanting, and 

 2 branchiostegal rays are present; p. 446 the skull is described in detail, upon the whole 

 correctly; inter alia is said that the opisthotic, basisphenoid and orbitosphenoid are absent 

 and the alisphenoid present. Incorrect is the following: "The ethmoid, lying on the fore 

 part of the vomer in the shape of a keel, does not reach back to the anterior ends of the 

 frontal. The visible parts of the parietals are small." In the interpretation of the suspensory 

 bones (p. 447) some greater errors occur in as much as L. considers the preoperculum to be the 

 interoperculum, while the preoperculum is said to be absent, and takes the real intcroper- 

 culum to be the metapterygoid. The infraorbitals are correctly interpreted, but his statement, 

 that the borders between them and partly the border against the "interoperculum" (i. e. the 

 preoperculum) are obliterated, is wrong. He further seems inclined to see some more infra- 

 orbitals behind the posterior one (ao in my rigure\ The pterygo-palatine bones and the 

 mouth-parts are correctly observed and described (L.'s "niesopterygoid" is = my ento- 

 pterygoid). About the branchial skeleton is only said that "os linguale" ,the glossohyal) 

 is very short, but the "basibranchiostegal bone" (presumably the urohyal) is long, slender 

 and rod-shaped, and that according to Mc. Mukrich the epihyal is wanting in the small and 

 short hyoid. 



Smitt (54) is, as far as I have seen, literally the only author, who almost without any 

 mistakes has described the suspensory skeleton of a Syngnathid; I therefore think it just lo 

 quote his description in extenso: 



"In the Deepnoscd Pipefish (Siinfiiialhns Ifiplilc} the elongation of the snout is [iroduced 

 in the following manner. The ethmovomerine part is elongated like a staff, and coated below 

 by the long and narrow parasphenoid bone, while the frontal bones extend forward above 

 in the form of long and narrow covering-bones over about half of the said elongation. The 

 hyomandibular bone is an oblong, quadrangular but irregular, vertically set disk, which is 

 united at a right angle below with the alinormally developed o s sy mplect i eu m, which is 

 directed forward, extends below the eyes, and sends out a branch obliquely upward towards 

 the lateral ethmoid (prefrontal) bone, while a second, still longer, horizontal branch meets 

 a process in a backward direction from the quadrate bone. This horizontal branch of the 

 sy mplect icu m is partly naked (without covering bones) externally, but is covered behind 

 and below, throughout the greater jiortion of its extent, by the ])reoperculum. The vertical 

 (posterior) branch of the preoperculum lies outside the hyomandibular bone and is united 

 above to the inferior margin of the suborbital bones. The obliquely ascending branch of 

 the sy nipl ect icuni, on the other hand, is separated by a space, occupied by the masticatory 

 muscles, from the two posterior suborbital bones, which bound the orbit below, but is united 

 to the hind superior corner of the anterior suborbital (the preorbital) bone, where the latter 

 meets the lateral ethmoid bone. The foremost suborbital bone forms the greater part of the 

 side of the snout, being united in front as a covering bone to the ento-(meso-) pterygoideum 

 and the quadrate bone, but leaving behind the latter an opening in the middle for about a 

 third of the depth of the snout; the middle suborbital bone is united below to the sym- 

 plecticum; the hindmost suborbital bone both to the symplecticum and, behind, to the 

 preoperculum. We refer to the opercular apparatus a narrow, lancet-shaped, thin bone 

 which lies along the inside of the horizontal, forward branches of the preoperculum and the 

 symplecticum and the horizontal, backward branch of the quadrate bone. This lancet- 

 shaped bone is united by ligaments behind to the upper part of the ceratohyoid bone and 

 in front to the angular part of the lower jaw. The latter union clearly shows that the bone 

 must be an interoperculum, corresponding most nearly in form and position to the inter- 



