2714 Bulletin //, United States National Museum. 



Atlantic, 011 both coasts; generally common, ranging southward along the 

 shore to Cape Hatteras ; found in deep water as far south as Barbados, in 

 209 fathoms, and to the Cape of Good Hope; northward to Norway and 

 Nova Scotia. A well-known fish of singular ugliness of appearance, and 

 of enormous voracity. (En.) (plscatorius, pertaining to an angler, in 

 allusion to the baited dorsal spines which overhang the cavernous mouth.) 



Lophius pisca torius* LINNAEUS, Syst. Nat., Ed. x, 1, 236, 1758, seas of Europe; after 

 ABTEDI, Lophiut ore cirrhoso, etc.; GUNTHER, Cat., in, 179, 1861; GILL, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. 

 Mus. 1878, 219; JORDAN & GILBERT, Synopsis, 844, 1883. 



Lophiut americanus, CUVIER & VALENCIENNES, Hist. Nat. Poiss., xn, 380, 1837, Philadel- 

 phia (Coll. Le Sueur) ; STORER, Hist. Fish. Mass., pi. 18, fig. 2, 101, 1867. 



1059. LOPHIOMUS, Gill. 

 Lophiomtis, GILL, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1882, 552 (setigerus). 



This genus is closely allied to Lophius in external characters, but it is 

 strikingly distinguished by the reduced number of its vertebrae, which 

 are only 18 or 19, a fact which is associated with its tropical habitat. One 

 species from the Pacitic. (Lophius; oJ//o, shoulder, in apparent allusion 

 to the trifid humeral spine. ) 



3092. LOPHIOMUS SETIGERUS (Vahl). 



Dorsal III-II1-9; A. 5. Head above orbits and laterally with numer- 

 ous spines and prickles ; humeral bone ending in 3 blunt points ; numerous 

 cirri scattered along sides of head and body. Vertebne 18. Color dusky ; 

 floor of mouth black posteriorly, but without white spots; pectorals and 

 veutrals pale on basal half, black distally ; caudal and anal black, with 

 some white spots; soft dorsal translucent, with black specks; first dorsal 

 spine with its membranaceous tip white, the latter provided with 2 black 

 eye-like spots. Pacific Ocean; not uncommon in rather deep water off 

 coasts of China and Japan. Known on the American coast from 1 speci- 



* According to Professor Horace A. Hofi'man this fish is called in Athens 

 or UeaKavrpiT^a. These names, " probably of Italian origin, meaning fisher; xAaaxa, at 



Chalcis, oxAe/u-TroO, and /Sarpaxo^apo at Patras. The /Sarpaxos 6 aAieus (the fisher frog) of 

 Aristotle. (See Aristotle 505a 6b 4, 506b 16, 564b 18, 565b 29, 570b 30, 620b 11 ff, 695b 14, 

 696a 27, 749a 23, 754a 23 ff, 755a 9, 835b 13, 1527b 41-43, 540b 18.) Aristotle says with i egard 

 to the /Sarpaxos : 'Inasmuch as the flat front part is not fleshy, nature has compensated for 

 this by adding to the rear and the tail as much fleshy substance as has been subtracted 

 in front.' The jSarpaxos is called the angler. He fishes with the hair like filaments hung 

 before his eyes. On the end of each filament is a little knob just as if it had been placed 

 there for a bait. He makes a disturbance in sandy or muddy places, hides himself and 

 raises these filaments. When the little fishes strike at them he leads them down with 

 the filaments until he brings them to his mouth. The /Sarpax ? is one of the oreAa^rj. All 

 the o-eAaXT are viviparous or ovoviviparous except the Parpc^o?. The other flat <reAaxn 

 have their gills uncovered and underneath them, but the /Barpaxos has its gills on the side 

 and covered with skinny opercula, not with horny opercula like the fish which are not 

 Some fishes have the gall bladder upon the liver, others have it upon the intes- 



is oviparous. This is on account of the nature of its body, for it has a head many times 

 as large as the rest of its body, and spiny and very rough. For this same reason it does 

 not afterwards admit its young into itself The size and roughness of the head prevents 

 them both from coming out (i. e., being born alive) and from going in (being taken into 

 the mouth of the parent). The /ffarpaxos is most prolific of the o-eAax*?, but they are 

 scarce because the eggs are easily destroyed, for it lays them in a bunch near the shore." 

 (Hoffman & Jordan, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1892, 278.) 



