been maintained. They have, as previously noted, sometimes been confused in the 

 literature. 



Since in actual practice it is sometimes necessary to have some practical 

 knowledpje of venomous and poison-spined fishes, the follorain'' notes ore added 

 here as a waminf? to the reader, 



Painlowsky (o£, cit;) cited the mora'-'s as venomous and reported that their 

 teeth contain a poison, but no later' authorities app<^ar to have detected it. 

 The teeth of these fishes are hin/^ed, as described in Section 1, and their 

 points are sharp, ''hen a person is bitten, he instinctively pulls his hand 

 away and as a result in most cases the wounds are not merely the toothprints but 

 are usually enlarged in the form of linear gashes. 



It is thoup^ht that either the size of the wounds, or the fact that the form 

 of the fish and the structure of its teeth resemble those of a snake has <»iven 

 rise to the theory that it is venomous. 



In the past many species have been reported to have poisonous spines, but 

 onlv those which are liable to cause trouble in the South Se-s area are cited 

 here, 



1. "any species of scorpaenids have a stroa^ spine on the dorsal vjith a poison 

 gland at its base. These fishes often burrow into the sand in shallow naters 

 near shore, ani there have been many cases in which persons have stepped on 

 them v;ith bare feet, the wound often bein:^ fatal. The seppariokaze . 

 Scorpaenopsis diabolixs Rleeker, (rjo in ^Tarshallese) (Pig, 67) is one of the most 

 violently toxic and also one of the most cormonly occurring species of this 

 group. 



The hananikasago , Pteroia volitaris (Linnaeus) (hfl in f'arshallese) is a fish 

 which is found svjimmin"; around the coral reefs. It has a strong venom on the 

 spines of all of its fins. (Fig. 68) 



2. The fishes of the aigo family LSiganidaeJ are not pp toxic ar, the species 

 rentioned above but they are more commonly encountered. These too have poison 

 glands on the spines, the structure of vihich has been studied by Professor 

 Ilcusaku Amenlya (on, cit. p. 8). The specier cited here, the ma.Hriaigo . 

 Sin-anus nuellus ( Schlegel) , is one '.vhich occurs abundantly in the ^outh Seas, 

 pigTTl] . 



This is one of the most common foodfishes. It is called ai!titoker 

 (jage 1131 (T%rshallese, '^odak) and annan (T'arshallese, '^lik), rnd is taken 

 in largo numbers in driving-in nets and sold in the markets. Care must be taken 

 in handling it. 



The following concerns poison-spined shellfish, All of those listed below 

 belong to the genus Conus . and are abundant in shallcnv vjater near ohora. Since 

 their appearance is attractive, people often pick up the llvin" animals v;ith 

 their hands ond in so doin" get stung. The piercing mechanism is not clearly 

 understood, but the poison is violent. The sting leaves a hole like that pierced 

 b^' a needle, and a space around it as largo as a conper penny turns purple. 

 The venom spreads through the body rather rapidly, ani cases are l^nown in '.vhich 

 death resulted less than an hour after being stung. The follovilng list is 



56 



I 



