nOMEA. 349 



Ilomca the typical genus {Bddhstoma of Miiller, 1834) was based on a spe- 

 cies, taken by Banks in the South Seas and noted by Home in 1815, to 

 which the generic and specific names Ilomea Banksti were apphed in 1822. 

 Species of this genus, Gastrobranche Dombcy LaC. and Petromyzon cirrhaius B. 

 S. were placed by Cuvier, 1829, in " Les Hejjtatremes Dumer." In 1831 

 Bonaparte made " Ucptatrcmiis Dumer." a synonym for Myxine, and in 

 1832 Voigt translated Cuvier's terms into '^ Hcptatrema Dumeril," including 

 the species originally assigned. Johannes Miiller, 1834, renamed the genus 

 Bdellostoma and made it to contain the species placed in it by Cuvier with 

 several others since reduced to the synonymy. Girard's statement that 

 the name Heptatrema was given by Dumeril in 1806 is without warrant; 

 the generic names then applied were " Lamproie" and "Gastrobranche," 

 the Latin terms Petromyzon and Gastrohranchus were placed after these in 

 parentheses in 1812, when Ammocoetus was added as another genus. Unless 

 it can be shown that there was use of the name Heptatrema previous to 1822 

 it will have to give way to Homea. That Bdellostoma was a synonym was 

 known to Miiller is evident from his references. The family name Bdello- 

 siomidie 1872, was discarded by its author for Hejotatremidw, 1894 ; both, being 

 based on synonyms, will have to be dropped for Homcidce. Crediting the 

 family name Myxtnidce to Rafinesque, 1810, is probably due to mistake pos- 

 sibly based on that author's " LXXI. Ordine /. Missinidi" which being with- 

 out contents is only an empty name. Rafinesque's subfamily Myxinia of his 

 family Cyclostomia dates from 1815, the name Myxinidai dates from 1845. 

 The family was well established by Miiller 1835 (1834) under the name 

 3Ii/xinoidea and included both M/jxinidce and Homeidoe. 



Homea. 



Homea Fleming, 1822, Phil. Zool., II, 374. 



Heptatrema Voigt, 1832, Das Thierreiuh, II, 529. 



Bdellostoma Mull., 1834, Abh. Ak. Wiss. Beil., anJ 1835, Anat. Myx. 



The history of this genus begins with the article in the Philosophical 

 Transactions for 1815, in which Home records a number of particulars con- 

 cerning a specimen obtained by Banks, page 258, Tab. XII. fig. 1. The 

 species is identified by Giinther and others with that described by Bloch 

 and Schneider, 1801, from manuscript by Forster, under the name of Fctro- 

 myzon cirrhaius. The name Homea Baidcsli was applied to it by Fleming, 



