FISHES — CYCLOPTERIDAE — CYCLOGASTER. 



131 



by tlie union of the ventrals. The membranous expansion is very considerable under the 

 throat and overlaps the branchial apertures, which, as already stated, are continuous. The 

 surface of the discoid expansion exhibits large pavement-like papillae upon its anterior 

 periphery. The posterior portion of the pectoi'als are quite independent from the ventral disc. 

 They are situated sidewise in the rear of the ones just described and inserted upon the thoracic 

 arch. Subovate in shape, the rays of which they are composed are very slender, articulated . 

 undivided inferiorly and dichotomised superiorly, the inferior rays being much more slender than 

 the upper ones. They are quite numerous. Their absolute number we could not ascertain. 

 Br. VI : VI ; D 14 ; A 13 ; C 3, 1, 5, 4, 1, 3 ; V 10 ; P 23. 



The skin is naked, scaleless, and rather leathery than soft and flabby, as in other genera of 

 this family. There are neither filaments nor flaps of any kind about the head or elsewhere, 

 A small conical papilla genitalis was observed upon the specimen before us, and which is a female 

 full of roe. A small specimen of a species of Patella was found in its stomach. 



The ground color is olivaceous brown above, the inferior surface of the head and belly being 

 of a dull yellow. Upon the upper surface of the head and body and sides of the tail extends 

 a beautiful mesh work of black lines. 



List of specimens. 



CYCLOGASTEa, Gronov. 



Gen. Char. — Head rather small or moderate in size, sub-conical, the snout somewhat protruding. Mouth broadly open, but 

 not deeply cleft ; small and conical teeth upon the prema.xillaries and lower jaw (dentaries). None on either the vomer or 

 palatines. Branchial apertures small and separated. Body scaleless and flabby, compressed and tapering. One dorsal fin quite 

 long and continuous with the caudal. Anal fin similarly elongated and continuous with the caudal also, which is lanceolated. 

 Pectoral fins well developed, extending anteriorly beneath the thoracic region, not quite united and surrounding the abdominal 

 diseformed by the ventrals. 



Syn. — Cyclogaster, Gronov. Mus. Ichthyol. If, 1756; Act Helv. IV, 265; pi. xxiii ; tc, Koophyl. 1763. — Artedi, Gen. 

 Pise. ed. Walbaumi, 1792, 634.— Dhm. Ichthyol. Anal. 1856, 164. 

 Liparis, Artedi, Syn. Pise. Editio lla, 1793, 117 Kroter, Danm. Fiske II, 1845, 518.— Storer, Synops. 1846,230. 



It is stated by Professor Johannes' lVIuller,i that in Liparis the fifteen anterior dorsal rays are 

 not articulated, resembling, therefore, the spinous rays of the other acanthopterians. In the 

 species, however, which we have examined, the same rays we saw distinctly articulated, though 

 undivided. 



Pallas, in his Spicilegia Zoologica, VII, 19 ; pi. iii, figs. 1-C, and, Zoographia Rosso-Asiatica, 

 vol. Ill, ed. of 1834, p. 74, describes and figures under the name of Cydopterus gelatinosus, a 

 species of Cyclogaster. It has been recorded iu more recent works under the head of Liparis. 

 It is an inhabitant of Kamtschatka, and undoubtedly related to C. pulchellus, from which it is, 

 however, quite distinct. 



' Wiegm. Archiv. f. Naturg. 1843, I, 295. 



