2114 Bulletin j, United States National Museum. 



genus in having a wider gill opening, and in various minor characters. 

 Length 2| inches. Puget sound; only the type known. (Starks.) (fs- 

 suratus, split.) 



Neoliparis fissuratus, STARKS, Proc. Cal. Ac. Sci. 1896, 560. (Type, No. 5044, L. S. Jr. Univ. 

 Mus. Coll. E. C. Starks.) 



785. LIPARIS* (Artedi) Scopoli. 



(SEA SNAILS.) 



Liparis, ARTEDI, Genera, 117, 1738 (nonbinomial). 



Cyclogaster, GRONOW, Museum, 1763, 157 (nonbinomial). 



Liparis, SCOPOLI, Introd. Hist. Nat., 453, 1777 (liparix). 



Liparis, CUVIER, Regne Anim. Ed. 1, 1817 (liparis; not Liparis, Ochsenheimer, 1810, a 



genus of Lepidoptera) . 

 Cyclogaster, GRONOW, Cat. Fiahes, Ed. Gray, 40, 1854 (liparis; not of Macquart, 1854, a 



genus of flies). 



Actinochir, GILL, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1864, 193 (major). 

 Careliparis, GARMAN, Discoboli, 56, 1892 (agassizii). 

 Lyoliparis, JORDAN & EVERMANN, Check-List Fishes, 451, 1896 (pulchellus) . 



Body rather elongate, covered with smooth skin, which is usually freely 

 movable; head short; flattened above; mouth horizontal, the jaws equal 

 or the lower jaw included; teeth in several series, close set, always more 

 or less tricuspid, the adult with the outer cusps often worn or obliterated; 

 maxillary covered by skin of preorbital region; anterior nostrils tubular 

 or not ; ventral disk well developed on the breast, its front below or behind 

 the middle of the head, its surface with 13 lobes ; an anterior median lobe, 

 and 1 corresponding to each of the 6 rays in each fin ; each lobe with a 

 horny papilla covering, whrch is sometimes lost; vent well behind the 

 head, about midway between the sucking disk and anal fin ; dorsal fin 

 continuous, undivided, its spines not differentiated; caudal well de- 

 veloped; dorsal fin free from caudal or joined; pectoral broad, procurrent 

 at base, emarginate and free at tips, some of the lower rays produced ; 

 vertical fins enveloped in the lax skin; vertebras 35 to 55. Northern seas 

 near the shores; the species less arctic in distribution and in general 

 inhabiting shallower water than is the case with Careproctus and Para- 

 liparis, a fact associated with the reduced number of vertebra? in Liparis. 

 The species are numerous, but in general well defined, their characters 

 varying with age. In most of the species color varieties occur, several 

 (pulchellus, liparis, aleuticus, agassizii) having the body often marked 

 everywhere with concentric curved stripes or rings. (\.ntapo^^ sleek- 

 skinned.) 



Concerning the species of Liparis (including Neoliparis}, Mr. Garman 

 observes : 



The fishes placed in this genus are mostly small; in general their outlines resemble 

 those of larval anurous batrachians. The anterior portion of the body, containing the 

 abdominal chamber, is usually short, broad, flattened beneath, and somewhat angular 



* Enantioliparis, Vaillant, is based on pallidus, an Antarctic species with the pectoral 

 very narrow and not emarginate; would seem to be distinct from Liparis. 



