Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 395 



648. LTCODONTIS MORINGA (Cuvier). 

 (COMMON SPOTTER MOKAY ; HAMLET.) 



Teeth uniserial, irregular in size in the jaws, those in the front of the 

 mouth long, slender canines; vomer with one or two large, depressible 

 teeth in front and usually a row of small teeth hehind ; eye rather large, 

 about 2 in -snout (2f to 3 in dark specimens, the pigment encroaching on 

 the cornea, so that the eye seems notably smaller); cleft of mouth 2i in 

 head ; head 2 to 3 in trunk; tail usually a little longer than the head and 

 trunk. Dark markings in the form of rounded spdts, which are more or 

 less confluent, sometimes reducing the pale ground color to narrow reti- 

 culations on a surface of black ; ground color yellowish, the body covered 

 with brown or black spots of varying size, never much smaller than the 

 pupil of the eye, and sometimes so largely confluent as to make the ground 

 color appear as yellow reticulations on a face of black ; relative extent 

 of light and dark markings subject to very great variations ; spots on 

 head and snout generally smaller ; each pore on lower jaw generally placed 

 in a large, pale spot; dorsal and anal fins spotted like the body; mar- 

 gin of anal fin narrowly yellowish, this marking obliterated in dark 

 specimens. West Indies, Pensacola to Rio Janeiro and St. Helena ; very 

 common, and very variable in amount of dark coloration, although the 

 pattern of markings is very constant. The most abundant eel in the West 

 Indies. (Moringa, a Portuguese corruption of Moray or Murcena.) 



Mursena maculata niyra, (the Black Moray), CATESBY, Nat. Hist. Carolina, pi. 21, 1738, Bahamas. 



?? Gymnolhorax afer, BLOCK, Ich., pi. 417, 1795, Africa. 



Mursena moringa, CUVIER, Regne, Animal, ed. n, Vol. n, 352, 1829, (after CATESBY) ; GUNTHER, 



Cat., vin, 120, 1870 ; GOODE, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., v, 72, 1876. 

 Gymnolhorax rostratus, AGASSIZ, Spix, Pise. Bras., 91, pi. 50 a, 1830, Brazil. 

 Mursena moringua, RICHARDSON, Voy. Erebus and Terror, Fishes, 89, 1844, Jamaica. 

 Muruna punctata, GRONOW, Catalogue Fishes, 18, 1854, North America. 

 Murenophis curvilineata, CASTELNAU, Anim. Ame"r. Sud, Poiss., 81, pi. 42, fig. 2, 1855, Rio 



Janeiro. 

 Murenophis caramufa, CASTELNAU, Anim. Nouv. Rares, Amerique du Sud, 85, pi. 43, fig. 1, 1855, 



Bahia. 



Gymnolhorax flavotcriptus, POEY, Enumeratio, 158, 1875, Cuba. 

 Gymnothorax picturatus, POEY, Anal. Soc. Esp. Hist. Nat,, 257, 1880, Cuba. 

 Sidera moringa, JORDAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1884, 111. 

 Gymnothorax moringua, JORDAN & DAVIS, I. c., 601. 



649. LYCODONTIS MORDAX (Ayres). 

 (CONGER EEL OF CALIFORNIA.) 



Snout short, narrow, and pointed. Occipital region becoming fleshy 

 and much elevated with age. Tail forming not quite half the total length. 

 Head 7 in length, 2| to 3 in trunk; tube of anterior nostril half as long 

 as the eye ; posterior nostril with a slight border. Eye above the middle 

 of the gape, 2 to 3 in snout, which is 6- in rest of head. Gape 2| to 3i 

 in head. Gill opening slightly larger than eye. Sides of the upper jaw 

 with two series of teeth posteriorly, the outer series of small, close-set, 

 recurved, triangular teeth, which are immovable; inner teeth about 5, 

 similar, but larger, depressible ; a groove between the two series; in front 



