29 



LOPHIODOK 



LORANTHACE^E. 



530 



produced into long slender filaments : head broad and depressed 

 extremely large in proportion to the body. 



L. piicatoritis, the Angler, or Fishing Frog, is thus described b 

 Mr. Yarrell : " The head is wide, depressed ; the mouth nearly as wid 

 as the head ; lower jaw the longest, bearded or fringed all round th 

 edge ; both jaws armed with numerous teeth of different lengths 

 conical, sharp, apd curving inwards ; teeth also on the palatine bone 

 and tongue ; three elongated unconnected filaments on the upper par 

 of the head, two near the upper lip, one at the nape, all three situatec 

 on the middle line; eyes large, irides brown, pupil black; pectoral fin 

 broad and rounded at the edge, wide at the base ; branchial pouche 

 in part supported by the six branchiostegous rays. Body narrow 

 compared with the breadth of the head, and tapering gradually to th 

 tail ; vent about the middle of the body ; the whole fish covered with 

 a loose skin. The number of fin-rays are : Dorsal, 3 spinous am 

 .2 soft ; pectoral, 20 ; ventral, 5 ; anal, 8 ; and caudal, 8. Colour o 

 the upper surface of the body uniform brown ; fin membranes darker , 

 under surface of the body, ventral and pectoral fins, white ; tail dark 

 brown, almost black." 



The Angler is usually about 3 feet in length, but has been known 

 to measure 5 feet. It lives at the bottom of the water, crouching 

 close to the ground ; and by means of its ventral and pectoral fins i 

 stirs up the mud and sand in such a manner as to conceal itself from 

 other fishes. The long filament at the tip of the nose is elevated, anc 

 the glittering appendage at its extremity is said to attract the smaller 

 fishes as a bait ; and when they are sufficiently near they are seizec 

 by this voracious fish. 



In the genus Antennarius there is the same sort of free rays on the 

 head, the first of which is slender, often terminated by an appendage 

 the following rays, augmented by a membrane, are sometimes mud 

 enlarged, and at others are united to form a fin. The dorsal fin occupies 

 nearly the whole extent of the back ; the body is often beset with 

 cutaneous appendages. These fishes, says Cuvier, by filling their 

 enormous stomachs with air, expand themselves like a balloon ; their 

 fins enable them to creep on land, where they can live for two or three 

 days, the pectorals, from their position, performing the functions of 

 hind feet. These fishes inhabit the seas of hot climates. 



The species of the genus ifalthe are remarkable for their projecting 

 snout, beneath which the mouth, which is of moderate size and pro- 

 tracted, is situated. The body is studded with bony tubercles, and 

 the dorsal fin is small. 



The fourth and last genus of the present family, Balrachut, is dis- 

 tinguished by the following characters : Head horizontally flattened, 

 broader than the body ; the mouth deeply cleft ; operculum and sub- 

 operculum spinous ; the ventral fins narrow, inserted under the throat, 

 and containing but three rays, the first of which is broad and elongated. 

 The anterior dorsal fin is short, and supported by three spinous rays ; 

 the posterior dorsal is long, and supported by soft rays ; the anal fin, 

 which ia opposed to the last, is also supported with soft rays. The lips 

 are frequently furnished with filaments. The species of this genus 

 keep themselves hidden in the sand to surprise their prey, like those 

 of the genus Lophiuu, and the wounds inflicted by their spines are said 

 to be dangerous. 



LO'PHIODON, an extinct genus of Mammalia, nearly approaching 

 in the structure of the teeth to the Tapirs and Rhinoceroses, and in 

 some respects to the Hippopotamus, separated by Cuvier from 

 Palvothtrium (with which, as well as Anoplotlterium, it is closely 

 connected) under the name at the head of this article. M. De Blain- 

 villc named the geuus Tapirotherium. 



Lophiodon differs from Pakeotherinm in that the lower molar teeth, 

 instead of exhibiting a continuous series of double crescents running 

 longitudinally, have transversal elevations (des collines transversales), 

 more or less oblique. Cuvier gives the following as the generic charac- 

 ters of Lophiodon : 



1. Six incisors and two canines in each jaw; seven molars on each 

 side of the upper jaw and six in the lower, with a vacant space between 

 the canine and the first molar : points in which they resemble the 

 Tapirs. 



A third elevation (colline) on the last lower molar, which is 

 wanting in the Tapirs. 



3. The anterior lower molars are not furnished with transversal 

 elevations as in the Tapirs, but present a longitudinal series of 

 tubercles, or a conical and isolated one. 



4. The upper molars have their transversal elevations more oblique, 

 and in this respect approach the Rhinoceroses, from which they differ 

 by the absence of crochets on these elevations. 



The dental formula of Lophiodm then will be 



a 



Incisors, - 

 6 



canines, ; molars, - . = 42. 



1 1 6 6 



The rest of the osteology of this extinct form indicates the affinities 

 above-mentioned ; but many parts of the skeleton are still unknown, 

 and particularly those essential portions the nasal bones and those of 

 the feet, the number of toes not being ascertained. 



No lesg than 15 species are recorded, 12 of which are named. 

 They belong to the first great fresh-water formation of the Eocene 

 period of Lyell ; and if we are to judge from analogy, and the other 

 animal remains (those of reptiles especially) with which they are 



WAT. HIM. DlV. VOL. lit. 



associated, they must have lived iu a temperature suitable to the 

 existence of Crocodiles and fresh-water Testudina,ta(Emys and Trionyx), 

 creatures which at present inhabit warm climates. 



The localities are Issel for three species, one of which is also found 

 at Epplesheim and another also at Argenton and Soissons ; Argenton 

 for three other species ; Buchsweiler for two more ; Montabusard for 

 two more, one of which is also found at Gannat ; Boutonnet near 

 Montpellier for one ; Orenburg for one (L. Sibiricum of Fischer) : 

 these species are named. Others have been found at Argenton, in the 

 Laonnois, near Paris, and near Frankfurt. 



1, lower back molar, from the great species of I.ophiodon of Argenton (Cuvier) ; 

 2, upper molar, (back) of the same (Cuvier) ; 3, canine tootb of tbc same 

 Cuvier) ; 4, incisor teeth of the same (Cuvier). 



In the ' Regne Animal,' Cuvier places Lophiodon between Palceo- 

 Iterium and the Tapirs. Professor Owen, in his 'British Fossil 

 lammals,' refers Lophiodon to the Tapiroidte, and describes a species 

 rom teeth found in Great Britain. He calls this species L. minimus. 



LOPHIUS. [LOI'HIADJE.] 



LOPHOBRANCHII, a family of Fishes in which the gills, instead 

 f being pectinated, are separated into small rounded tufts, which are 

 rranged in pairs along the branchial arches, and covered by a large 

 perculum, so fixed as to leave only a single small orifice for the pass- 

 ge of the water outwards. The Pipe-Fishes, Synifnathm, Hippo- 

 ampui, Solenostomus, and Pegasus, are the genera included in this 

 amily. [SYNGNATHID.E.] 



LOPHOGNATHUS. [DRACONINA.] 



LOPHOPHORUS. [PAVONID*.] 



LOPHORINA. [BIRDS OF PARADISE.] 



LO'PHOTES, a genus of Falconidce established by M. Lesson ; but 

 liat term having been previously employed by Giorua to designate a 

 enus of Acauthopterygious Fishes, Mr. Gould and others adopt the 

 .tie Lepidogenys, proposed by Dr. J. E. Gray for this gonus. Mr. 

 ould describes a species among his Australian birds under the name 

 f Lepidogmys cristatus. The form is somewhat allied to Pernis. 

 ?ALCONIDjE.j 



LOPHOTES. [T^KIOIDES.] 



LOPHOTUS, a name applied by G. Fischer to a genus of Simiadie. 



LOPHU'RA, a genus of Saurians established by Dr. Gray, but 



mnged by Cuvier for Istiurus, because in his opinion the term 

 ophura, cornea too near to tho term Jjophyrus. [IGUANID^E.] 



LO'PHYRUS, a genus. of Birds. [CoLUMuiD<.J The term is also 

 mployed by Dumeril to designate a genus of Saurians (Ayama 

 igantea, Kuhl.), and by Latreille as a name for a genus of Hymenop- 

 erous Insects. 



LORANTHACE^E, Lorantlia, a natural order of Exogenous Plants, 

 eferred by most systematic writers to either tho polypetalous or 

 mouopetalous sub-class, but by others regarded as more closely in 



liance with the apetalous Santolacece and Proteacox. They are in 



a it 



