APODAL FISHES OF AMERICA AND EUROPE. 
611 
39. MURiENA AUGUSTI. 
Murcena guttata (Banks & Solander mss .) Lowe, Trans. Zool. Soc., n, 192 (Madeira); 
Richardson, Voy. Erebus and Terror, Fish., 90, 1842 (Madeira) (not of Risso, 
which is Murcena lielena; nor of Forskal, which is a Ualiopliis). 
Limamurcena guttata Kaup, Apodes, 96, 1856 (in part). 
Thyrsoidea augusti Kaup, Apodes, 88, 1856 (Madeira) (after Richardson). 
Murcena augusti Gunther, vm, 97 (Madeira) ; Vinciguerra, Pesci del Cors^ro, 619 (Ten- 
eritfe). 
Thyrsoidea atlantica Johnson, Proc. Zool. Soc. Lon., 168, 1860 (Madeira) (fide Gunther). 
Habitat: Islands of the Eastern Atlautic. 
Etymology: A personal name. 
This species is known to us only by the descriptions. 
Genus 7. — ECHIDNA. 
Echidna Forster, Enchiridion, 31, 1778 (variegata). 
Gymnomuraena Lac6pede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., v, 648, 1803 ( doliaia—marmorata ). 
Molarii Richardson, Voyage Erebus and Terror, 79, 1844 (ophis=nebu1osa). 
Pcecilophis Kaup, Apodes, 98, 1856. 
Gymnomuraena Kaup, Apodes, 98, 1856 ( variegata=nebulo8a ). 
Type : Echidna variegata Forster. 
Etymology : viper. 
This well-marked genus is distinguished from the other Moray s by 
the blunt teeth. The name Echidna was suggested for this group of 
eels long before its application by Cuvier to a genus of Australian 
Monotremes. It must, therefore, be retained in preference to Gymno - 
murcena , Molarii , or Pcecilophis , and the mammalian genus should not 
be called Echidna. 
There are some 12 or 15 species of Echidna, most of them belonging 
to the Western Pacific. 
ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF ECHIDNA. 
a. Color dark, with small round yellow spots; teeth subequal, bluutisli, less obtuse 
than in E. catenata, mostly uniserial ; dorsal high, beginning over gill-opening; 
head short and blunt, the small eye half the snout; head 2f in trunk; cleft 
of mouth 3 in head ; tail about a snout’s length shorter than rest of body. 
Color, dark brown, with small round yellow spots, smaller than pupil, like pin 
points, scattered evenly and sparsely over the body; spots with blackish mar- 
gins; lower jaw mottled Noctcrna, 40. 
aa. Color brownish, marbled and barred with paler ; head 3 to 3£ in truuk, 3| in tail; 
eye small, to 2 in snout; cleft of mouth 3 to 3£ in head ; tail a trifle longer 
than rest of body; teeth of upper jaw more or less biserial. Color, brownish 
black, marbled or reticulated with light yellow or white, the light markings 
sometimes forming narrow irregular cross-bars ; under the jaw aud on the belly 
the light yellow often predominates, inclosing dark spots Catenata, 41. 
40. ECHIDNA NOCTURNA. 
Pcecilo})hi8 nocturnus Cope, U. S. Geol. Surv. Mont, and Adj. Terr., 174, 1871 (Rio 
Grande, Costa Rica). 
Habitat: Pacific Coast of Tropical America. 
Etymology : Latin, nocturnal. 
