THE DISCOBOLI. 11 



which he changed to Liparidince, 1864, and later to Lipariclidcv, 1872, 

 when, in his Gobiesocoidea, with the families Gobiesocidaa and Cyclopte- 

 ridas, he used it as that of a distinct family. In 1873, Gill rearranged 

 the group, giving it the name Cyclopteroidea instead of Discoboli, and 

 ranking it as a superfamily to contain the C^'clopteridaa, with one sub- 

 family, the Cyclopterinaa, and the Liparididaa with two, the Liparidinaa 

 and the Careproctinae ; but in his latest publication on the subject, 1891, 

 he suppresses his subfamily Careproctinae, and adds that of Jordan, 1882, 

 the Amitrinse, but changes the name to Paraliparidince. Giinther, 1887, 

 places all the genera in a single family, Discoboli, without indicating 

 other distinctions than those recognized as generic. 



Liparididce. — The typical genus of this section is IAparis of Artedi, 

 founded on the species afterward named Cyclopterus liparis by Linne. 

 Careproctus was characterized by Kroyer, 1862, from a form named by him 

 C. Reinhardi. It had previously been noted by Reinhardt as Cyclopterus 

 gelatinosus of Pallas, 1769, from which satisfactory distinctions have not 

 yet been pointed -out. Its prominent features are curved simple teeth and 

 a long tenuous caudal, which lose some importance when studied in such 

 types as L. major. ActiiiocJiir of Gill, 1864, was a genus based on one 

 of the forms described by Fabricius as Cyclopterus liparis ; it is not sep- 

 arated from Careproctus. Neoliparis of Steindachner, 1875, was intended 

 to include Liparis mucosus as a subgenus. The characters assigned were 

 a low membranous connection of dorsal and anal with caudal, and a sup- 

 posedly distinct anterior portion of the dorsal, neither of which seems to 

 furnish sufficient reason for separation from L. Montagui or L. liparis, on 

 which species the dorsal rays, continuous under the skin, acquire a peculiar 

 development at particular times. Paraliparis of Collett, 1878, was distin- 

 guished by the absence of the ventrals ; its species are deep-sea forms. 

 Amitra of Goode, 1881, was discarded by its author for Monomitra, 1884; 

 its type, M. liparina, was identified by Giinther, 1887, as a Paraliparis. 

 Gymnobjcodcs of Vaillant, 1888, was disestablished by that author, with 

 the remark that its type, G. Edwardsii, was closely allied to L. micropus 

 Gthr., if not the same. Enantioliparis of Vaillant, 1888, included an An- 

 tarctic form, E. pallid us, which we may not separate from the species of 

 Liparis. The genera of this section of the Discoboli, those here adopted, 

 include Liparis, Careproctus, and Paraliparis. Liparis, however, is made to 

 contain as subgenera Liparis proper and Careliparis. 



