THE USE OF THE NAME TORPEDO FOR THE ELECTRIC 



CATFISH. 



Bn^ Theodore Cill, 



Jlonnnoy Am)dat(' hi Zoologi/. 



In the Proceeding-y of the U. S. Natioiuil Muscuiii for isi*;-) (p. 101) 

 the name Torpedo was revived for the electric cattish, o-enerally known 

 as J[aJaj)terurHS electricm. This view has been adopted hy several 

 authors (Jordan, Evermann. etc.) and doubtless will be oenerally by 

 those who adhere strictly to rules of priority. It has already been 

 indicated that the application of the name to the electric rays by the 

 ancients was secondary and not primary, and that the term was as 

 applicable to the electric cattish as to the electric rays. I was not 

 aware, however, that it had been so applied by any other than Forskal. 

 Recently mv attention was accidentally drawn to the fact that in 1843 

 Heckerhad indicated that the cattish was mentioned under the name 

 Torpedo bv Athenfeus and Purchas. 



I have searched in vain in the Deipnosophistiv of Athena?us for any 

 mention of the Torpedo or ra^p/c// which could l)e referred to the elec- 

 trical catHsh. All the notices found (VII, c. 95; VII, c. 120; VII, c. 140) 

 relate to a sea tish, avowedly or in all probability. In an miperfect 

 list of ^-the chief tish found in the Nile" (VII, <•• 1»2), only sixteen" 

 species are named, but it is remarked that •• there are tilso a or^-at 

 numl)er of others." Unfortunately Heckel has given no reference to 

 the chapter of Athenians which led him to suppose that reference to the 

 cattish was meant; his onlv citation (in the Abl)ildungen und Beschrei- 

 hunoen der Fische -Svriens) under -Atheuanis" is m a chronological 

 summarv of authors treating of Egyptian tishes, where, in a list of 

 sixteen species (p. 218), the following reference is made: - lorpedo. 

 Malapterurus electricus LacepSr In the systematic list of species, 

 under Mahn>fen>n,s .leetricm (p. 230), -Torpedo Aihen^u>^f is also 

 named. . 



«This list IS exclusive of species which Athen.-eus had justhefore mentioned in the 

 same chapter; that is, the Ixitos, different Coracim, and the M.oUv. Incidental y, it 

 mav be added that Athenanis says that the Lato. "is like the tish c-alied the (dan,. 

 which is found in the Danube ' ' ! The Coracim doubtless included the celebrated Bolti 

 {Tdapki mlotica). 



Proceedings U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXVI-No. 1329. 



697 



