THEOSTEOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FAMILY ANGUIL- 



LID/E. 



BY 



Theodore Gill, M. D., Ph. D. 



The diversities within the restricted Apodes (or those anguilliform 

 fishes without developed iiiterinaxillaries and with the "vomer" pro- 

 jecting and forming, with the supramaxillaries, the upper arcade of the 

 mouth) are very great, but were not appreciated till Professor Cope 

 considered them in his '• Observations on the Systematic itelations of the 

 Fishes." * That great naturalist was so impressed by them that he 

 distributed them under two orders, the Enchclycephali^] embracing the 

 Congridw, AnguilUdw, and Murccnesocidce, and the ColocephaU,\ including 

 the Mnramidcv and Ratahuridw { = Moringuid(v). While I am not pre- 

 pared yet to admit the " orders" of Professor Cope, 1 retain the groups 

 as suborders with moditied characters, and the families appear not 

 only to be justified, but, it seems to me, must be increased. A com- 

 parison of the skulls of Anguilla, Conger, Murcencsox, Simenohelys, 

 Synaphohranchus, Ophichthys, and Murcvna has convinced me of the ad- 

 visability of recognizing for each of them family rank. The characters 

 of the family AnguilUdw contrasting with one or otherof the other fam- 

 ilies are now given in the order which I have heretofore employed for 

 full descriptions of families of normal fishes. 



ANGUILLID^. 



Synonyms as family names. 



< Pantopt^res, DimMl, Zool, Anal., pp. Ill, 115, 1806. 



<[ Auguillidi, Bafinesque, ludice d'lttiolog. Siciliana, p. 37, 1810. 

 <^Pautopteria, Bafinesque, Analyse de la Nature, 23 fam., p. — , 1815. 



< Anguilliforraes, Cuvier, Kfegne Animal [1" 6d.], t. 2, p. 229, 1817; 2" 6d.,t. 2, p. 348, 



1829. 



< Anguilloides, Latreille, Fam. Nat., R^gne An., p. 142, 1825. 

 <^Le3 Miir6nides, Bisso, Hist. Nat. Europe m6rid., t. 3, p. 189, 1826. 

 <^Muraenid8B, iJonoparie, Giorn.Accad. di Scienze, v. 52 (Saggio Distrib. Me tod. An i- 



mail Vertebr. a Sangue Freddo, p. 34), 1832. 



< Munonida?, Bonaparte, Nuovi Annali delleSci. Nat., t. 2, p. 133, 1838 ; t. 4, p. 276, 1840, 



< Murienid.'B, Swainson, Nat. Hist, and Class. Fishes, etc., v. 2, pp. 195, 333, 1839. 

 <Anguillare8, Miiller, Archiv f. Naturgesch.,9. Jg., B. l.p. 328, 1843. 



< Murjenidic, Bonaparte, Cat. Metod. Pesci Europei, p. 6*, 38*, 1846. 

 <^ Muraenidie, Adams, Man. Nat. Hist., p. 110, 1854. 



* Proc. Am. Aks. Adv. Science 1871, v. 20, pp. 317-343, 1872. 

 t Op. cif., p. 334. 



Proceedings National Museum. Vol. XIII— No. 803. 



157 



