65 



Fam. 2. LABRIDtE. 



Labrida?, pt., Cuv. Eegne Anim. 



Labroidei cycloidei, Miill. Hoi. Ahhandl. 1844, p. 16G. 



Cyclolabridse, Owen, Lcct. Cump. Anat. Fishes, p. 48. 



Body oblong or elongate, covered with cycloid scales. The lateral 

 line extends to the caudal or is interrupted. One dorsal fin, with 

 the spinous portion as well developed as, or more than, the soft ; the 

 soft anal similar to the soft dorsal. Ventral fins thoracic, with one 

 spine and five soft rays. Palate wathout teeth ; only one lower pha- 

 ryngeal bone without median suture. Branchiostegals five or six ; 

 gills three and a half ; pseudobranchiae and air-bladder present. Py- 

 loric appendages none ; stomach without caecal sac. 



All the fishes of this family are marine, inhabiting the seas of the 

 temperate and tropical regions, becoming scarcer towards the Arctic 

 portions : none are known from the Arctic and Antarctic seas. Feed- 

 ing chiefly on moUusca, their dentition is admii'ably adapted for 

 crushing shells : many species have a strong curved tooth at the pos- 

 serior extremity of the intermaxillary, for the purpose of pressing a 

 sheU against the lateral and front teeth, by which it is crushed. 

 The Scarina are herbivorous as well as carnivorous. 



The following synopsis of tlie genera is, in the main, the same as that proposed 

 by me in the 'Annals and Magazine of Natural History,' 1861, viii. p. 382, but 

 with several alterations, of the necessity of wliich I have convinced myself by a 

 study of the most elaborate analytical conspectus given by Dr. v. Bleeker in the 

 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society,' 1801, p. 408. Too much importance 

 appears to me to have been attached, in that paper, to the shape of the lower 

 pharyngeal and to the arrangement of its teeth, a character the systematic value 

 of which I readily admit, so long as it is constantly joined with a second (in 

 Pseudodacina, Scarhia, and Odacina). \VTien Dr. v. Bleeker describes these 

 teeth as " paviincntati" in his family of Cossyphifornws, he must attribute the 

 same character to the genus Lcwhnolaimiis, placed by him along with Labrus, 

 which has these teeth "non pavimenfafi'' although Lcichno/aimus is certainly 

 merely a modified form of the typical Lahri. I am inclined to consider Ckptimts 

 and Siphanognafhus as being in a similar relation, the former to Cossyphus and 

 the latter to Odax. 



A character which has been entirely overlooked, but which, for the further 

 division of the Lahrida, is as important as that taken from tlie dentition or from 

 the structure of the vertical fins, is that of the number of the vertebra;, the value 

 of which has been maintained by me on several occasions. It will be evident, 

 from the niunerous statements contained in the following pages, that in those 

 genera wliicli are composed entirely or for the greater part of tropical species, the 

 vertebral column is composed of '1\ or nearly 24 vert<;br;p, whilst those which 

 are chiefly confined to the temperate seas of the northern or southern hemisphere 

 have that number increased in the abdominal and caudal portions. Not having, 

 at present, quite sufficient materials, I have thouglit it better not to let this cha- 

 racter interfere with the division proposed ; but I hope soon to be able to base 

 a revision of the genera and groups on a complete series of skeletons. 



A valuable contribution to the knowledge of the pharyngeal apparatus of the 

 Labroids has been given by R. Kner. in ' Sitzgsber. Acad. Wiss. Wien.' xl. 1800, 

 p. 40. 



VOL. IV. . F 



