308 



VENOMS 



1.— Siluridse. 



The majority of the very large number of species belonging to this 

 family live in fresh water, and have the free margin of the lips 

 almost always furnished with barbules {Silurus glanis ; fig. 119). 

 A few of them possess a poison-apparatus, which, however, attains 

 its greatest development in Plotosus, the only genus of Siluridae 

 found exclusively in the sea. 



The species of Plotosus frequent the shores of the Indian Ocean, 

 and are met with in the Seychelles, Eeunion, and Mauritius. In 

 shape they resemble eels, and they bury themselves in the sand or 

 mud, a habit which renders them very dangerous to fishermen. 



\ 



Fig. 119. — Silurus glanis (Rivers of Central and Eastern P^urope). 



Plotosus lineatus, which is of a greenish-brown colour, striped 

 with from four to six longitudinal whitish bands, is the most 

 common. By the Creoles of Mauritius and lieunion it is called 

 Machoiran, by the Malays Samhilang, and by the Al.)yssinians 

 Kooniat. 



Its poison-apparatus is situated at the base of the dorsal and 

 pectoral spines. These spines are strong, sharp, slightly incurved. 



