792 contributions to north american ichthyology iv. 



Family CXVIIL— OPHIDIID^. 

 {The Ophidioids.) 



Body elongate, compressed, more or less eel-sbaped, naked or covered 

 with very small scales, wliich are not imbricated, but placed in oblique 

 series at right angles with each other; head large; lower jaw included; 

 both jaws, and usually vomer and x^alatines also, with villiform or car- 

 dilbrm teeth; premaxillaries protractile; gill-openings very wide, the 

 gill- membranes separate, anteriorly narrowly joined to the isthmus be- 

 hind the ventrals; pseudobranchise small or obsolete. Gills 4, a slit 

 behind the fourth; vent more or less posterior. Vertical fins low, 

 without spines, confluent around the tail ; tail isocercal ; ventral fins at 

 the throat, each developed as a long, forked barbel. Air-bladder and 

 pyloric coeca present. Genera 3, species about 12. Carnivorous fishes, 

 found in most warm seas. 



{OpMdiidoe, group Opliidiina Giinther, iv, 37G-380.) 



a. Body scaly. 



h. Palatines with a band of villiform teeth only QPHIDIUM, 433. 



433.— OPHIDIUIU Linuaius. 

 {OpMdion Artedi; Linnteus Syst. Nat.: type Ophidion harhatum L.) 



Body moderately elongate, compressed ; scales small, not imbricated, 

 but arranged in short oblique series, placed at right angles with each 

 other, much as in Anguilla. Head naked, or somewhat scaly; teeth 

 villiform, those of the outer series more or less enlarged; teeth on 

 vomer and palatines bluntish, some of them enlarged. Vent well be- 

 hind pectorals. {Ophidium, an ancient name, from oyOlcov, a small 

 snake.) 



(I. Outer teeth of jaws fixed. (Ophidium.) 



I 



1219. O. inarg:iiiattini Dek. 



Color nearly plain brownish; dorsal and anal fins margined with 

 black. Maxillary reaching posterior margin of orbit; air-bladder short 

 and broad, with a foramen on the under side; outer ray of ventrals 

 about equalling length of head; inner ray half length of outer. Gill- 

 rakers 4. Head C.J ; depth 7 J. Atlantic coast of I^orth America from 

 !New York southward. 



(Dekay, N. Y. Fauna, Fish. 1842, 31:^; Putnam, Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. 1874, 342.) 



