FISHES OF FAMILY BLENNHDAE 37 



fused dorsal hypural plate ("hypurals 3 and 4," using the terminology 

 of Nybelin, 1963) and urostyle. If uroneurals are present, their identity 

 has been completely lost through fusion. The minimal hypural (Maku- 

 shok, 1958; an "epural" in Springer, 1966; "hypural 5," Nybelin, 

 1963) is attached posterodorsally to the fused dorsal hypural plate. 

 The minimal hypural is attached to the posteriormost dorsal pro- 

 current caudal ray and shares with the fused dorsal hypural plate in 

 support of the dorsalmost segmented caudal ray. (This condition 

 exists in all the other species of Entomacrodus examined except E. 

 stellifer and E. rofeni, where the minimal hypural appears to support 

 only the procurrent caudal ray.) Five branched caudal rays also 

 attach to the fused hypural plate. There is one ventral hypural plate 

 bearing four branched and two unbranched caudal rays. This plate 

 attaches (but is autogenous) proximally to the urostylar portion of 

 the fused dorsal hypural plate and urostyle. The ventral hypural 

 plate probably consists of a haemal spine and hypurals 1 and 2; it 

 lacks the posterolaterally directed phlange for the attachment of part 

 of the flexor caudalis ventralis superficialis muscle (Greene and Greene, 

 1914) found in many perciforms and lower teleosts (Gosline, 1960, 

 1961). This is not surprising in view of the fact that Entomacrodus 

 is a benthic genus that probably does not use the caudal fin as much 

 for propulsion as do free swimming fishes. An opening on either side 

 of the ventral hypural plate is the point at which the caudal artery 

 bifurcates and the two portions exit. According to Nybelin (1963), 

 the last preural (precaudal) vertebra is the last vertebra anterior to 

 the bifurcation of the caudal artery. 



There are 13 spines and 15 rays (range for the species: 13-16; for 

 the genus: 13-18) in the dorsal fin. Each spine except the terminal 

 one is attached, usually by a ring joint, to its own pterygiophore. 

 The thirteenth spine is much reduced and is attached to the same 

 pterygiophore (proximal) that supports the first dorsal ray. It would 

 appear that the spines (in blenniids) have been shifted one pterygio- 

 phore posteriorly in their pterygiophore relationships and that the 

 thirteenth spine has become attached to a ray-supporting proximal 

 pterygiophore. The shape of the ray-supporting pterygiophores is 

 different in appearance from the spine-supporting pterygiophores 

 and, thus, favors such an assumption. Also, the first spine-supporting 

 pterygiophore is larger than the others and possibly consists of a 

 fusion of the first two pterygiophores. (This condition is common 

 in tropical blennioids, and some malformed specimens of the generally 

 considered more primitive Clinidae actually exhibit two pterygio- 

 phores: together equal in size and shape to the normal single first 

 ptergiophore, instead of one; in such specimens the first spine is 



