302 Dr. A. Giinther on the Genus Trachinus. 



Dentes pterygoidei nulli. Oculi obliqui, subhorizontales. Pree- 



operculum aculeatum. Linea lateralis duplex. 



T. vipera, C. & V. 



It is not my intention to question for a moment the merits 

 of a division by which, at all events, the determination of 

 those six or seven species is facilitated ; but I shall be satisfied 

 with directing attention to the following points which occurred 

 to me during the arrangement of the specimens of Trachinus 

 which have been added to the British Museum Collection in 

 the course of the two last years. 



1. Trachinus araneus was known to me only from the dried 

 skin of a half-grown specimen. The British Museum has lately 

 received a fine large specimen from Cannes (South of France). 

 This species has no pterygoid teeth ; the maxillary extends 

 upwards to before the orbit ; the cheeks are entirely naked ; 

 and the praeoperculum is provided with the same feeble spines 

 which are observed in the common Weever (T. draco). There- 

 fore this species cannot be referred to Trachinus, Blkr., from 

 which it differs in two characters, nor to Pseudotrachinus, Blkr. ; 

 and unless the diagnoses of those two genera are essentially 

 altered, we shall have to propose a fourth genus for this Weever. 



2. The presence of a second (lower) lateral line, attributed 

 to the genus Echiichthys, will require further confirmation. 

 Dr. Bleeker says distinctly that it is not a simple " depression 

 intermusculaire." If we understand by lateral line a canal in 

 the integuments of the body, which is the continuation of the 

 muciferous channels of the head, opening by equidistant pores, I 

 may say that such a second lateral line is not present in Tra- 

 chinus vipera. It appeared to me to be a depressed line, pro- 

 duced by the insertion of a long, thin, flat muscle, the fibres 

 of which descend obliquely forwards to the base of the anal 

 fin ; its function is to depress the rays of the anal fin. The 

 line does not extend forward on to the trunk. I could not 

 detect any pores, although I have examined British and Dutch 

 specimens, the latter being sent by Dr. v. Bleeker to the 

 British Museum. 



3. In the second volume of the ' Catalogue of Fishes ' 

 (p. 234), I have described a Weever from the West Coast of 

 Africa, which differed from the European T. draco in the 

 stronger armature of the head, and in the less elongated body. 

 Notwithstanding, I pi-eferred describing it as a variety, seeing 

 that some specimens from the Canary Islands also showed a 

 stronger armature of the head than is usually found in spe- 

 cimens from Northern Europe, although their body is elongate 

 as in the true T. draco. Dr. Bleeker has recognized this African 

 Weever in two other specimens in the Leyden Museum, where 



