Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2501 



955. LUCIFUGA, Poey. 

 (CUBAN BLINDFISH.) 



Lucifuga, POEY, Memorias, n, 95, 1860 (subterraneus) . 



Body moderately elongate, translucent pinkish, covered with minute 

 -scales. Eye rudimentary, covered by the skin ; Lands of villiform teeth 

 in the jaws and voiner, none on the palatines; nostrils 2 on each side; no 

 barbels; head with small tactile cirri; 110 spines on head; gills 4; no 

 pseudobraiichi<e ; gill opening large, extending forward nearly to the syrn- 

 physis, the gill membranes not united; branchiostegals 7 or 8; vertical 

 fins low, united around the tail; veutrals each reduced to a short thin fila- 

 ment; male with an anal papilla, no pyloric cseca; air bladder large, 

 rounded behind, joined to the base of the skull. Cave streams of Cuba; 

 the eyes having undergone a degeneration similar to that seen in Ambly- 

 opsis. These fishes have no relation to the blind cave fishes of North 

 America, but are derived from marine types, their ancestors being evi- 

 dently allies of Ogilbia and Brotula. It is known that blindfishes are 

 found also in caves of the islands of Jamaica, but no specimens have been 

 seen by naturalists, (lux, light; fugo, I flee.) 



2872. LUCIFUGA SUBTEBBANEUS, Poey. 



(PEZ ClEOO.) 



Head 2f; depth 3f. Branchiostegals 7. D.70; A. 70; P. 51; V.I; C.9. 

 Vertebra 11 + 36=47. Body elongate, compressed, tapering, pointed; 

 head low at nape, much depressed anteriorly, broad, covered with soft, 

 white, wrinkled skin, with microscopic cirri, having firm and conical 

 tubes ; no barbels on lips or chin ; skin of head with many pores ; scales 

 not ciliate, present on body and top of head and on opercles ; lateral line 

 median, marked by a series of microscopic cirri like those on head, these 

 wanting posteriorly ; eyes wanting ; nasal openings double ; mouth large ; 

 lower jaw shorter; lips fleshy; maxillary broad at tip, f length of head; 

 teeth in jaws very short and sharp, in a band; vomerine teeth larger; no 

 palatine teeth ; pharyngeal teeth slender ; tongue smooth ; gill openings 

 large; males with an anal papilla; fin rays simple, flexible, jointed but not 

 branched ; dorsal beginning at a point about | nearer tip of snout than 

 tip of caudal; anal smaller, beginning farther back, the 2 fins fully joined 

 to the pointed caudal; pectoral fin short, falcate, nearly head; ventral 

 in front of pectoral, a slender ray not i length of maxillary. Color trans- 

 parent rosy, head reddish, becoming darker in alcohol. No pyloric cjeca; 

 intestines short; air bladder large. Described from 12 specimens, the 

 longest about 4 inches ; found in caves of the jurisdiction of San Antonio, 

 in the southern part of Cuba. (Poey.) (sub, under; terra, earth.) 



Lucifuga subterraneus, POEY, Memorias, n, 96, 1860, San Antonio, Cuba (Coll. D. Tran- 

 quilino) ; Sandalio de Noda (Coll. D. Juan Antonio Fabre) ; first coll. from Cajfo Cave, 

 1831 (Noda) ; second, Cave at La Industria (Coll. Dubroca) ; third, Ashton Cave, San 

 Andreas (Coll. Fabre) ; fourth, Cave of the Dragon (Coll. Fabre) ; fifth, Cave at the 

 Castle of Concord (Coll. Lay unta). 



