APODAL FISHES OF AMERICA AND EUROPE. 
647 
ANALYSIS OF THE SPECIES OF HOPLUNNIS. 
a. [Tail about four times as long as rest of body; eye 3 in snout; posterior portion 
of vertical fins black.] ( Kaup per Gunther ) Schmiltii, 94 
94. HOPLUNNIS SCHMIDTII. 
Hoplunnis sehmidtii Kaup, Aale Hamb. Mus., 19, taf. 2, fig. 4, 1859 (Puerto Cabello) 
( fide Gunther) ; Giiuther, vhi, 49, 1870. 
' Habitat: Atlantic coast of Central America. 
Etymology : A personal name. 
This species is known to us only from Kaup’s account as quoted by 
Dr. Gunther 
Genus 29.— MUE^ENESOX. 
Mureenesox McClelland, Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist., iv, 408, 1843 ( cinereus ). 
Cynoponticus Costa, Fauna Napoli Pesci., 1850, tav. 28 (ferox — savanna). 
Brachyconger Bleeker, Nederl. Tidsskr. Dierkunde, ii, 233, 1805 {savanna). 
Congresox Gill, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 234, 1890 ( talabon ). 
Type: Murcena cinereaV orsk&l. 
Etymology: Murcena ; esox , pike. 
This genus contains numerous species, large, conger-like eels, some 
of which are found in all warm seas. They are remarkable for the 
strong armature of the vomer. 
There seems to be no doubt that the group called Cynoponticus and 
Brachyconger is geuerically identical with the type of Mureenesox , but 
the group called Congresox , from the East Indies, having the vomerine 
teeth acutely conic, is somewhat different, and should perhaps be rec- 
ognized as a distinct genus. 
ANALYSIS OF THE AMERICAN SPECIES OF MUR^NESOX. 
a. Median teeth on vomer enlarged, compressed, cultrate; median teeth on side of 
lower jaw also enlarged and compressed or bluutish. (Mureenesox. ) 
b. Middle series of teeth on vomer not distinctly tricuspidate ; pectoral rather more 
than half head ; vomer with a median row of about 15 very large, strong teeth, 
which are much compressed, the tip angular and directed backwards, and with a 
nick on the posterior edge, thus 
one or two of the anterior teeth only slightly 
tricuspidate ; on each side of the median row on vomer some very small, blunt 
teeth, disappearing anteriorly, arranged in one or two rows very close to the me- 
dian row ; jaws with one or two outer rows of small, blunt teeth, next a row of 
rather large, wedge-shaped teeth, and then an inner baud of small, conical, blunt 
teeth in two, three, or four series; front of both jaws with groups of canines, 
which are shorter than the pupil of the eye ; in old examples the teeth, especially 
those on the vomer, are often so worn that their original form is not at all evi- 
dent; head 2 in trunk, 3£ in tail; pectoral fin twice in the distance between the 
tip of snout and the base of the fiu : eye 2£ in the snout, in interorbital width, 
3£ in cleft of mouth, situated a little behind middle of gape; cleft of mouth 2£ 
in the head; gill-opening large, containing the isthmus twice; dorsal beginning 
over the gill-openings. Olive brown above, dull whitish below: dorsal and anal 
light brown with a dark margin; caudal and pectoral fins black ..Coniceps, 95. 
