Go 



Fam. 2. LABRID^. 



Labridfe, pt., Cuv. Rbgne Aniin. 



Labroidei cycloidei, Milll. Berl. Ahhandl. 1844, p. 166. 



Cyclolabridse, Owen, Led. Co^njj. 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 weU developed as, op more than, the soft ; the 

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

 spine and five soft rays. Palate without teeth ; only one lower pha- 

 ryngeal bone without median suture. Eranchiostegals five or six ; 

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

 loric appendages none ; stomach without cacf .1 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 admirably adapted for 

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

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

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

 The Scarina are herbivorous as well las carnivorous. 



The following synopsis of the 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 wMch 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,' 1861 , 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 

 Psetcdodacina, Scarifia, and Odacina). When Dr. v. Bleeker describes these 

 teeth as " pavimentati" in his family oi Cossyphiformcs, he must attribute the 

 same character to the genus Lachnolaimus, placed by him along with Lahrus, 

 which has these teeth "wow pavimcntafi'' although Lachnolaimus is certainly 

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

 and Siphmiognathus as being in a similar relation, the foi-mer to Cossyphus and 

 the latter to Odax. 



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

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

 the structiu'e of the vertical fins, is that of the number of the vertebrae, the value 

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

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

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

 vertebral column is composed of 24 or nearly 24 vertebraj, 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 thought it better not to let this cha- 

 racter interfere with tlie 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. 1860, 

 p. 40. 



VOL. IV. F 



