416 



TROPICAL AMERICA AND ITS ANIMALS 



largest of fresh-water fish, not only in America but elsewhere, is the Arapaima 

 gigas of Guiana and Brazil, which attains a length of more than 15 feet and 

 a weight of over 400 lbs. It belongs to a family, Osteoglossidce, almost 

 peculiar to the Southern Hemisphere, and is the only representative of its kind. 

 The electric eels are confined to the American tropics, the best known species 

 (Gymnotus electricus) inhabiting the rivers of Guiana, Venezuela, and northern 

 Brazil. It has been known to attain a length of 6 feet, and feeds on other fishes 

 and f roo-s. This fish is provided with a pair of electric organs on the back of the tail, 

 and another pair along the base of the anal fin, with which it gives shocks powerful 

 enouo-h to be dangerous to man. A species of lung-fish {Lepidosiren paradoxa) 

 inhabits the rivers of South America from Brazil to Paraguay, and is akin to the 



'•.^ v 



HERCULES BEETLE — MALE AND FEMALE. 



West African genus Protopterus, and more remotely to the Australian Ceratoclus, 

 or, as it is also termed, Neoceratodus. Like its African and Australian relatives, 

 this fish breathes atmospheric air by means of its swim-bladder, although it can 

 likewise make use of its gills. Some very remarkable forms of armoured cat-fish 

 (Loricariidce) are also met with in the South American rivers. These include the 

 typical genus Loricaria, the members of which are small fishes specially abundant in 

 Amazonia, and Acestra, in which the muzzle is much elongated. 



The insects of the South American region, like those of other 

 tropical countries, include many large and strange types, such as, for 

 instance, the Hercules beetle (Dynastes hercules), the males of which are over 

 5 inches in length, and the Surinam lantern-bearer {FvZgora la nternaria), one of the 

 cucujas which measures some 2 \ inches in length and bears a bladder-like expan- 



Insects. 



