2714 Bulletin //, Uyiited States Natio7ial Museuvi. 



Atlantic, on both coasts; generally common, ranging sonthward along the 

 shore to Cape Hatteras ; found in deep water as far south as Barbados, in 

 209 fathoms, and to the Cape of Good Hope; northward to Norway and 

 Nova Scotia. A well-known fish of singular iigliness of appearance, and 

 of enormous voracity. (Eu.) {jnscatoyius, pertaining to an angler, in 

 allusion to the baited dorsal spines which overhang the cavernous mouth.) 



Lophius piscatorius* LiNN^us, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 1, 236, 1758, seas of Europe ; after 

 Aetkdi, Lophius ore cirrhoso, etc. ; GiJNTHER, Cat., ui, 179, 1861 ; Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. 

 Mns. 1878, 219; Jordan & Gilbert, Synopsis, 844, 1883. 



Lophius ainericanus, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Toiss., xii, 380, 1837, Philadel- 

 phia (Coll. Le Sueur) ; Storer, Hist. Fish. Mass., pi. 18, fig. 2, 101, 1867. 



1059. LOPHIOMUS, Gill. 



Lophiomus, Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 552 (setigerus). 



This genus is closely allied to Lophius in external characters, but it is 

 strikingly distinguished by the reduced numlter of its vertebrie, which 

 are only 18 or 19, a fact which is associated with its tropical habitat. One 

 species from the Pacific. {Lo2)hius ; oojitdi, shoulder, in apparent allusicm 

 to the trifid humeral spine. ) 



8092. LOPHIOMUS SETIGERUS (Vabl). 



Dorsal III-III-9; A. 5. Head above orbits and laterally with numer- 

 ous spines and prickles; humeral bone ending in 3 blunt points; numerous 

 cirri scattered along sides of head and body. Vertebra^ 18. Color dusky ; 

 floor of mouth black posteriorly, but without wtite spots; pectorals and 

 ventials pale <m basal half, black distally ; caudal and anal black, with 

 some white spots; soft dorsal translucent, with black specks; first dorsal 

 spine with its membranaceous tiji white, the latter provided with 2 black 

 eye-like spots. Pacific Ocean; not uncommon in rather deep water off 

 coasts of China and Japan. Known on the American coast from 1 speci- 



* According to Professor Horace A. Hoffman this fish is called in Athens Uea-KavSpirQa 

 or UtcrKai'TpiT^a. These names, " probablj^ of Italian origin, meaning fisher; x^«<^X<i, at 

 Chalcis, (TKAe/uuTToO, and /3aTpox6\|/apo at Patras. The PaTpaxo<; 6 aAiev; (the fisher frog) of 

 Aristotle. (See Aristotle 505a 6b 4, 506b 16, 564b 18, 565b 29, 5701) 30, 620b 11 ff, 695b 14, 

 696a 27, 749a 23, 754a 23 ff, 755a 9, 835b 13, 1527b 41-43, 540lj 18.) Aristotle says with i egard 

 to the |8aTpaxo! : ' Inasmuch as the flat front part is not fleshy, nature has compensated for 

 tliis by adding to the rear and the tail as much fleshy substance as has been subtracted 

 in front.' The ^arpaxos i.s called the angler. He fishes with the liair like filaments liung 

 before his eyes. On the end of each filament is a little knob just as if it had been i)laced 

 there for a bait. He makes a disturbance in sandy or muddy places, hides himself and 

 r.iises these filaments. When the little fishes strike at them he leads them down with 

 the filaments until he brings them to his mouth. The ^axpoxoi is one of the creAoxi). All 

 the creAaX'? are viviparous or ovoviviparous e.Kcept the /Sarpaxos. The other flat crtAaxi 

 have tlicir gills uncovered and underneath them, but tlie ^aTpaxos has its gilKs on the side 

 and covered with skinny opercula, not with hoiny opercula like the fish which are not 

 aeKaxM&n- Some tislies have the gall bladder upon the liver, others have it upon the intes- 

 tine, more or less remote from the liver and attached to it by a duct. Such are ^cirpaxo?, 

 iWoij/, <rvra7pi9, aiMvpaiya, and fi<|)ia?. (This has been proved true of Lophius- piscatorius 

 by a dissection by Dr. C. H. Gilbej't.) The ^arpaxos is the only one of the aiXa^r] which 

 is oviparous. This is on account of the nature of its body, for it has a head many times 

 as large as the rest of its body, and spiny and very rough. For this same reason it does 

 not afterwards admit its young into itself. The size and roughness of the head prevents 

 them both from coming out (i. e., being born alive) and from going in (being taken into 

 the mouth of the parent). The (idTpaxo<; is most prolific of the creAaxi, but they are 

 scarce because the eggs are Oii.sily destroyed, for it lays them in a bunch near the shore." 

 (Hofl'man oc. Jordan, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1892, 278.) 



