FISHES CYCLOPTERIDAE — LEPADOGASTER 



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with transverse series of black spots simulating continuous narrow bands. The pectorals and 

 ventrals are unicolor and rather lighter than the belly and inferior surface of the head. The 

 upper surface of the head presents the same hue as the back. 



List of specimens. 



Family CYCLOPTERIDAE, Bonap. 



The body is scaleless and protected by a naked skin, sometimes flabby, at others leathery, and 

 occasionally studded with small indurated plates. The united ventral fins are discoid ; their 

 soft rays being undivided. The same is true with regard to the rays of the pectorals, except 

 in the genus Cyclopterus, where they bifurcate. The anterior dorsal fin is often wanting or else 

 reduced to a mere unnoticed rudiment. There are three and a half gills, the fourth having but 

 one branchial comb. The last branchial aperture or split is wanting. 



SyN. — Cydopteridae, Bonap. Sagg. Distr. meth. Anim. Vert. 1831, 118.- 

 Synops. 1846, 228. 



-De Kay, N. T. Faun. IV, 1842, 305.— Storer, 



The representatives of this family are mostly acanthopterians, Lepadogaster being a malacop- 

 terian. It has been observed by Job. Miiller that the pyloric appendages do not constitute a 

 family trait ; the latter being quite numerous in the genus Cyclopterus, or Lump-fish, whilst 

 they are entirely wanting in Lepadogaster and Gohiesox, which belong to the same family. The 

 papila genitalis, the same anatomist has observed in both sexes in the species of Lepadogaster, 

 and at least in the male sex in the species of Oobiesox. 



LEPADOGASTER, Gouan. 



Gen. Char. — Head large, broad and depressed, without tentacles. Mouth moderate sized, provided with small and conical 

 teeth upon the premaxillaries and the lower jaw. Palate smooth. Body scaleless, anteriorly broad and sub-depressed, posteri- 

 orly compressed and tapering. One soft- rayed dorsal fin more or less elongated, not continuous with the caudal. Anal fin 

 elongated also and liliewise separated from the caudal. Posterior margin of caudal fin rounded off. Ventrals united into a 

 sub-circular abdominal disc, conjointly with a portion of the pectorals. Branchial apertures continuous under the throat and 

 partly overlapped by the anterior edge of the abdominal disc. 



Syh.— Lepadogaster, Gouan, Hist. Pise. 1770. — Risso, Ichth. de Nice, 1810; Hist. nat. Eur. merid. Ill, 1826, 271.— 

 Cnv. Regn Anim. II, 1817, 224 ; 2d, ed. II, 1829 ; & ed Illustr. Poiss. 307. 



The generic characters which are here assigned to Lepadogaster are chiefly derived from the 

 species of our western coast, the only one at our command at the present time. The numerous 

 species which have been referred to this genus must be distributed into several genera with 

 more closely defined characters. 



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