408 TELEOSTEI 



apparatus is usually reduced, and the branchiostegals delicate 

 or absent. The gill-opening is narrowed to a small round aperture, 

 and the gill-clefts small. The pectoral fins, and even the girdle, 

 may be lost. 



Family MURAENIDAE. The body is scaleless and generally conspicu- 

 ously coloured. The tail is very long (Fig. 403). 



FIG. 403. 

 Muracna. plda, Ahl. (After Giintlier.) 



Muraena, L. ; Thyrsoidea, Kp. ; Myroconger, Gthr. ; Enchelycore, Kp. ; 

 Lycodontis, McCl. ; Ghannomuraena, Rich. 



Series 3. 

 Sub-Order 3. SYMBRANCHIFORMES. 



A small group of very highly specialised fish whose affinities 

 cannot yet be determined. They have a superficial resemblance to 

 the Eels, from which they differ in many important osteological 

 characters, and in the possession of closed ovisacs. The air-bladder 

 is absent. 



The skull is like that of the Clupeiformes ; the parietals 

 meet, the maxillae, however, are almost excluded from the margin 

 of the mouth, and the hj^opalatine arcade is closely fitted to 

 the narrow, firmly ossified cranium. The trunk being much 

 lengthened and the tail short, the anus is usually far back, and 

 there are a large number of vertebrae. In Ckilolranchus the tail 

 is long. Strong parapophyses bear short ribs. The centra are 

 slightly opisthocoelous. 



