308 VENOMS 
1.—Siluridæ. 
The majority of the very large number of species belonging to this 
family live in fresh water, and have the free margin of the lips 
almost always furnished with barbules (Silurus glanis ; fig. 119). 
A few of them possess a poison-apparatus, which, however, attains 
its greatest development in Plotosus, the only genus of Siluridæ 
found exclusively in the sea. 
The species of Plotosus frequent the shores of the Indian Ocean, 
and are met with in the Seychelles, Reunion, and Mauritius. In 
shape they resemble eels, and they bury themselves in the sand or 
mud, a habit which renders them very dangerous to fishermen. 
Fig. 119.—Silurus glanis (Rivers of Central and Eastern Europe). 
Plotosus lineatus, which is of a greenish-brown colour, striped 
with from four to six longitudinal whitish bands, is the most 
common. By the Creoles of Mauritius and Réunion it is called 
Machoiran, by the Malays Sambilang, and by the Abyssinians 
Koomat. 
Its poison-apparatus is situated at the base of the dorsal and 
pectoral spines. These spines are strong, sharp, slightly incurved, 
