'"iSD^i!"'] PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 359 



tiie skeleton before me, there are two slender spurious interneurals (t. <?., 

 iuterneiirals having no connection with the dorsal fin) api)ressed to the 

 large third internenral and, like the third, with the dorsal extremities 

 bent forward in a spiniform manner. 



Dr. Giiuther asserts that "the first internenral is the strongest, 

 reclined backwards, and superiorly armed with a spine pointed for- 

 wards." It is the third internenral that is the strongest, and its dorsal 

 extremity is pointed forward in a spiniform manner, but there is no 

 specialized or independent spine pointed forwards, as might be inferred 

 from the expression used. 



SKELETAL ICONOGRAPHY. 



The only figures of the skeleton of Scatopliagus I know are the fol- 

 lowing: 



Scatophagus argus. 

 Ch(ctodo)i striatHs liosenthal, Ichthyotom. Tafeln, pi. 13, f. 2. 1821. 



(Skel.) 

 Scatophagus argits, Agass., Eecherches Poiss. Foss., t. 4, p. 230, pi. H; 

 f. 1. (Skel.) 



Only one genus, so far as known, is referable to the family Scatoplia- 

 gidcc ; that genns was named Scatophagus by Cuvier in 1830. The name 

 Scatophaga* having been previously (1803) given by Meigen to a genus 

 of dipterous insects, and the two forms {Scatophaga and Scatophagus) 

 being considered to be synonymous, a new name- — Cacodoxus — was con- 

 ferred on Ihe Cuvieran genus by Cantor in 1850. Still later, the Cuvieran 

 name Ephippus was revived by Bleeker (in 1870) for the later named 

 Scatophagus, simply because the >S'. argus happened to be first named in 

 connection with the EpMppi. What name, then, shall be accepted for 

 the genus in question ? 



Scatophagus a))pears to be sufficiently distinct from Scatophaga (as 

 Picxis is from Pica) and therefore Cacodoxus, or any other new name, 

 is unnecessary. Ephippus was subsequently restricted by Cuvier to 

 the genus to which it is now universally applied, and whose typical 

 species was at first refei red to the old genus so named. iSTotwithstand- 

 ing the fact that S. argus was first mentioned, the name Ephippus was 

 evidently for the Ephippiids of later writers, and must be therefore re- 

 tained for such. It follows that the names Scatophagus and Ephippus 

 may be retained with their current applications. Sargus was not onl^- 

 anticipated by Scatophagus and Cacodoxus, but i)reoccupied in entomol- 

 ogy and ichthyology. Scathophagus is merely a lajisus calami or typo- 

 graphical error. 



The synonymy of Scatophagus may be thus summarized: 



*The dipterous geuus was made the type of a peculiar subfamily {Scatojihagina) 

 by Desvoidy, in ls30. 



