LOPHOBRANCHII. 11 



Hippocampus taenioptera, Bleeker, Bijdr. Ichth. AboL. Nat. T. 



N. bid. iii. 306. 

 Hippocampus moluccensis, Ibid. iii. 305. 



Diagn. — Length of the snout from the proximal horder of the 

 orbit equal to the distance from thence to the gill-opening, 

 or approaching thereto. No nasal protuberance, or merely a 

 small one in the young. Coronet moderately stilted, and 

 having from 4 to 6 prominent tips. Breast-ring destitute of 

 a spine pointing backwards, or of one curved upwards. 



Descr. — A widely diffused species, which inhabits the Ja- 

 panese, Chinese, Indian and Australian seas. Great numbers 

 of specimens exist in all the more important museums. When 

 fully grown it is one of the largest species, as an example in the 

 Paris Museum shows, and at an advanced period of life all the 

 protuberances are very blunt. Dr. Cantor, a skilful and acute 

 observer, found one female at Penang that measured 5 inches 

 in length, and which had round knobs on the tips of the head- 

 spines and on the various body-rings. This character is inci- 

 dental, since I have seen an individual in which the beginnings 

 merely of the knobs can be traced. It is always, therefore, a 

 difficult task to construct a diagnostic character from the inspec- 

 tion of a solitary example of the species. 



Dr. Bleeker, in the first instance, characterized three species 

 from varieties of this one, but in his more recent labours he has 

 corrected himself, and brings his tanioptera and moluccensis 

 under kuda, which is moreover identical with comes. 



In young individuals having a length of from 2 to 4 inches, 

 the nasal projection is spinous ; two spines also appear under 

 the eye, and two on the under piece of the breast-ring. There 

 is, indeed, such a variety in these spines, that we may see in an 

 individual a single spine on one side of the body corresponding 

 to two on the other side. Moreover, the protuberances of the 

 body-rings are not always constant in their distribution, and we 

 may find them on the 1st or 2nd, 4th or 5th, /th, 9th and 11th 

 body-rings. On the tail it is on the 3rd, 5th or 6th, 8th, 9th 

 or iOth, 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 16th or 17th that the protu- 

 berances occur. 



In a female 2 inches long, the height of the 10th body-ring 

 is equal to the length of the last five body-rings. In a male of 

 4 inches, the 10th ring is equal to the length of the last six body- 

 rings. In another male the same 10th ring has a height equal 

 to the last seven or eight body-rings. A male in the Paris Mu- 

 seum which came from the Isle of Bourbon is abnormal, 1 st, in 

 having a longer snout ; 2nd, in having only ten body-rings ; 

 3rd, in having a less prominent belly and somewhat less height. 



