THE GYMNOTID EELS OF TROPICAL AMERICA. 111 
The first step toward segregating the Gymnotide into a separate family was 
made by Cuvier (1817) in the Régne Animal. He recognized a group, “Les Gym- 
notes,” which he divided into (1) “ Les Gymnotes vrais” (the electric eel); (2) ‘Les 
Carapes”’ (Gymnotus carapo), and (3) ‘Les Apternotes” (the Sternarchine). 
The formal family name was assigned to this group by Bonaparte (1846) in 
the “Catalogue dei Pesci Europei.” Cope, in 1871, restricted the family name 
Gymnotide to E. electricus and applied the name Sternopygide to the rest of the 
group. Gill (1872) replaced the name Gymnotide, as restricted by Cope, with 
Electrophoride, applying the name Gymnotide to Cope’s Sternopygide. This 
nomenclature has been used by most subsequent writers. 
The family was monographed by Kaup in the ‘“‘ Apodes”’ of the British Museum 
in 1856. Steindachner described “Die Gymnotide des K. K. Hof-Naturalien- 
cabinetes zu Wien” (Sitzb. d. K. Akad. d. Wissensch., 1. Abth., LVIII, 1868). 
In 1870 Giinther again reviewed the British Museum specimens in Volume VIII 
of his “Catalogue of the Fishes in the British Museum.” In 1905 Eigenmann and 
Ward published a synoptic revision, “The Gymnotide’’ (Proceedings of the 
Washington Academy of Sciences, Vol. III, pp. 159-188, 1905). Von Ihering in 
his “Os Peixes da agua doce do Brazil’? (Revista Museu Paulista, Vol. VII, pp. 
270-287, 1907), and Schlesinger, in his recent ‘Die Gymnonoten. Eine phylo- 
gynetisch-ethologische Studie” (Zodlogische Jahrbiicher, Band 29, Heft 6, 1910), 
have followed the nomenclature of Eigenmann and Ward almost without change. 
TAXONOMY. 
Order GLANENCHELI. 
Family GYMNOTID 2. 
Gymnotide BoNApartE, Cat. Metod. dei Pesci Europei, 1846; Kavp, Apodal 
Fish, 124, 1856; Ginruer, Cat., VIII, 1, 1870. 
Sternopygide Corx, Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Sci., 1871. 
Hlectrophoride Grtu, Arrangement of the Families of Fishes, 1872. 
Gymnotide Cork, l. c. 
Body elongate and eel-like; with or without scales; head naked; dorsal fin 
wanting, or represented by a dorsal thong; ventrals wanting; anal very long; 
pectorals small and paddle-shaped; caudal small or wanting; the tail terminating 
in a cylindrical caudal appendage in the species without a caudal; margin of upper 
jaw formed by the premaxillary and maxillary; mouth with, or without, teeth; 
anus never back of the middle of the pectorals, usually well under the head; verte- 
bre many; shoulder-girdle suspended from the skull; skull with, or without, frontal 
fontanel, parietal fontanel always present, though much reduced and hidden in 
two species; symplectic bone present; air-bladder of two parts, the anterior con- 
nected with the posterior by a small tube; stomach with a blind sac and pyloric 
crea. 
