■SAND-r.EI.S. 



567 



I AM. AMMODYTIDiE. 



Body elovgated. fusiform, terete or compressed, covered with thin cycloid scales or partly naked. Caudal fin 



separated from the other vertical fins. Jaws without teeth". Gill-openings large: hranrhiostegal memhranes more 



or less completely free from each other and from the isthmus. I'seudohraiichia' irell-developed and distinct. 



Air-bladder iraidiiig. Pyloric appoidages rudimeutary. 



The place of this family in tlie svsteiu has long 

 lieen a debated question. The original oi)ini()ii of mo- 

 dern systematists, that of Aktedi, was that the Sand- 

 Eels — with their long dorsal tin occupying the greater 

 })art of the back — should lie ranged beside the genus 

 Coryphmni. This opinion, borne out bv the Mackerel- 

 like coloration of tlie Sand-Eels, still survived in 1839 

 in Swain.son', wiio pointed out the external resemblances 

 between these fishes and Lepidopus. Linn.eus had ima- 

 gined that he had made an improvement by uniting 

 all tishes witliuut ventral tins into an order (Apodes), 

 and thus in 1817 — 1821) the Sand-Eels assumed in 

 Cuvier's works'' the rank of a genus within the family 

 of the Eels, and in 1832—1841, in Bonaparte'', that 

 of a subfamily {Ammodytini) of the Ophidiido' among 

 Malacopterygii apodes. When iltLLER" formed the order 

 Anacanthini, he did not hesitate to include in this or- 

 der the familv Ophidiidec, but he declared himself 

 unable to give a decided opinion as to the place of 

 Ammodytes, though he positively denied the relationship 

 between this genus and the Eels. In his later work', 

 however, Bonaparte ranged the Sand-Eels, as a distinct 

 family {Ammodytid(e), among the Gadi, and Glnther' 

 did not hesitate to include these tishes among the 

 Anacanthini as a subfamily (Animodytina) of tlie Opl/i- 

 diidce. 



This diversity of opinion has been caused by the 

 absence in the Sand-Eels both of the ventral tins and the 



air-bladder. The reduction and eventual disappearance 

 of the ventral tins is a characteristic -which, as we have 

 seen above, may occur within several piscine orders. 

 The absence of the air-bladder may be explained in 

 the same wa}'. We must, therefore, look to other 

 characters in order to discover the nearest relations of 

 the family, and as often happens in such cases, we may 

 have recourse to ciiaracters apparently of minor im- 

 portance. The Sand-Eels are approximated bj* their 

 form and coloration not only to the Mackerels but, 

 still more closelj', to the Garpikes. To the latter fishes, 

 which are Pharyngognate Anacanthini, it is impossible 

 to unite the Sand-Eels, in which the lower pharyngeals 

 are free from each other. Still, where the lateral line 

 lies in the Garpikes and Flying-tishes, along the ventral 

 margin, at the lioundary between the sides and the 

 belly, and also along the base of the anal tin, here we 

 find in the Sand-Eels a dermal ridge, somewhat raised 

 in the same way. The physiological signification of 

 this ridge is indeed unknown, Init in a morphological 

 respect it shows at least a trace of resemblance to the 

 Garpikes and Flying-fishes, such a resemblance as we 

 have seen above in other Anacanthi)ii, in the Coiichia- 

 stage of Onos. The Garpike-like coloration of these 

 last fishes, in its sharp contrast to that of adult Rock- 

 lings, may also be a trace of their original I'elationship 

 to the Sand-Eels. Among the osteological peculiarities 

 which we have above remarked in the Gadoid family, 



" Day (Fishes of India, p. 420) observed, Ijowever. ''a few, fine teeth opposite tljo synipliysis in eitlier jaw" 

 leria) katlolepis. 



' yat. Hist. Fish., ,i,„j,h., Repl., vol. II, p. ihi. 



■= Rer/iie Animal, tome II, ed. 1, p. 240; cd. 2, p. 3G0. 



'' Iconogr. Fn. Ital., toni. Ill, Pesci, Introd., p. 15. 



' Abh. Aknd. Wiss. Berl. 1844, p. 177. 



•'' Cataloijo Metoilico dei Pesci Europei, Xapoli 1846, pp. G and 40. 



» Cat. Brit. Mas., Fish, vol. IV, p. 384. 



Ammodytes (Blee- 



Scandinarinn FMie. 



