Jordan and Evermann . Fishes of North A merica . 248 7 



947- OPHIDION (Artedi) Linnaeus. 



(CusK EELS.) 



Ophidian (ARTEDI) LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 259, 1758 (barbatum). 



Ophidium, LINNAEUS, Syst, Nat., Ed. xn : 431, 1766, and of most recent authors; changed 

 spelling. 



Body moderately elongate, compressed; scales small, usually not imbri- 

 cated, but arranged in short, oblique series, often placed at right angles 

 with each other, much as in Anguilla. Head naked ; teeth villiform, those 

 of the outer series more or less enlarged, none of them movable; teeth on 

 vomer and palatines bluntish, some of them enlarged. Vent well behind 

 pectorals. Opercle without distinct spine ; sometimes ( 0. barbatum) a dis- 

 tinct spine at tip of snout. Air bladder oblong-ovate, tapering behind, 

 without foramen. Shore species mostly European. ( Ophidium, an ancient 

 name, from 60z'<5zor, a small snake.) 



a. Gill rakers 4. 



6. Head 4f in length; depth 7; fins not dark edged. BEANI, 2855. 



bb. Head 6 in length ; inner ray of ventral 1 in length of outer, which is shorter 



than head; fins dark-edged. HOLBROOKI, 2856. 



aa. Gill rakers 6 or 7; head 5J to 6 in length; depth 8 to 10; color silvery, unspotted; 



fins not dark-edged; ventrals nearly as long as head. GRAELLSI, 2857. 



2855. OPHIDION BEANI, Jordan & Gilhert. 



Head 4f in length ; depth about 7. Head small, the profile not very 

 obtuse; snout 4 in head ; eye 3, more than twice the narrow interorbital 

 space; mouth oblique, the maxillary reaching to posterior border of pupil, 

 2 in head; lower jaw slightly included; teeth small, in narrow bands in 

 the jaws, the outer series in upper jaw somewhat enlarged; vomerine and 

 palatine teeth small, subequal; head naked; snout spineless; opercle 

 without spine; no evident pseudobranchiae ; gill rakers rather long and 

 strong, 4 below angle of arch ; occiput nearly midway between origin of 

 dorsal and front of eye. Air bladder long and slender, occupying nearly 

 the whole length of abdominal cavity, tapering backward. Very light 

 olive, somewhat punctate above, slightly silvery below; fins without trace 

 of dark edging (but being mutilated they may have been dark-edged in 

 life). Gulf Of Mexico. Two specimens, 1 of which is in good condition 

 and about 4 inches long, were taken from the stomach of a red snapper, 

 at Pensacola. (Named for Dr. Tarleton Hoffman Bean.) 



Ophidium grcellti, JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 301 ; JORDAN & GILBERT, 

 Synopsis, 963, 1883; not of POEY. 



Ophidian beani, JORDAN & GILBERT, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1883, 43, Snapper Banks off Pen- 

 sacola (Coll. Jordan & Stearns. Type, No. 30868, U. S. Nat. Mus.) ; JORDAN, Cat. 

 Fishes N. A., 126, 1885. 



2856. OPHIDION HOLBROOKI (Putnam). 



Head 6 in total length. Inner barbel nearly length of the outer ; outer 

 barbel equal to distance from center of eye to point of operculum; maxil- 

 lary reaching to posterior border of eye. Length of eye equal to dis- 

 tance from its posterior margin to ridge of preoperculum. Dorsal and anal 



