72 ACANTHOPTERYGII. 



Family, VII— PEDICULATI, Guvier. 



Branchiostegals five or six : pseudobranchiae usually absent. Skeleton fibro- 

 osseous. Head and anterior portion of the body large, the former depressed or 

 compressed. Preorbital not articulated with the suborbital ring of bones. Gills 

 2|, 3, or 3i: gill-opening reduced to a small foramen situated in or near the 

 axilla. Eyes superior or lateral. Teeth minute, villiform, or cardiform. The 

 spinous dorsal fin when present is situated well forward, and mostly composed 

 of a few isolated spines or tentacles : the carpal bones are prolonged into a kind 

 of arm, ending at the base of the pectoral fin: ventrals when present, jugular, 

 "with four or five soft rays. Skin smooth, or with small spines, or tubercles. Air- 

 bladder present or absent. Pyloric appendages few or absent. 



Bleaker, Gill, and some others divide the Fediculati into three families, 

 Lophoidei, Ohironectoidei, and Maltheoidei. 



Geographical distribution. — Inhabitants of all seas. These fishes, due to their 

 mode of progression, have a wide geographical range. Generally inactive, their 

 peculiar pectoral fins enable them to walk or progress over moist ground or slimy 

 rocks in quest of their prey, and even clasp pieces of wood or sea- weed, attached 

 to which some are frequently carried away by currents, and have been observed 

 far out at sea. Although bad swimmers, Dussnmier remarks that Antennarii 

 inflate themselves and float on the surface of the water. Some conceal themselves 

 in the sand or mud, merely displaying their erectile first dorsal spine, which, 

 situated on the head, is provided with an excrescence at its extremity, resembling 

 a worm or piece of meat. By agitating this, smaller fishes are attracted and fall 

 a prey to the artful angler. " The modified dermoneurals, forming the cephalic 

 tentacles of Lophius and Antenna ri us, are as frequently reproduced as they are 

 injured, to meet the peculiar use which these angling fishes make of them : they 

 may be observed in every stage of growth " (Owen, Comp. Anat. i, p. 567). 



Genus I — Lophius, Artedi. 



LopMopsis, Guich. 



BrancMostegals six : pseudoiranchice present. Head very large, hroad and 

 depressed : many spines on its surface. Cardiform teeth in the jaios and palatines, 

 usually on the vomer, hut none on the tongue. Gills three. The three anterior spines 

 of the first dorsal fin modified into tentacles, the succeeding ones attached together by 

 an interspinous membrane: second dorsal and anal fins short. Air-bladder absent. 

 Pyloric appendages two. 



Geographical distribution. — The fishes of this genus are littoral forms dis- 

 tributed throughout the seas of Europe and the coasts of North America, 

 extending to the Cape of Good Hope, China, and Japan. The European Lophius 

 piscatorins has 28-31 vertebras and the humeral spine as a rule 3 points : Ii. bude- 

 gassa of the Mediterranean has 27 to 30 vertebras, and its humeral spine is long 

 and simple : while the Japanese L. setigerus has merely 19 vertebrae. 



These fishes have excited wonder in the minds of naturalists and others 

 from the earliest ages. Aristotle observes there is a species of frog which is 

 termed the fisher, deriving its name from the wonderful industry it displays in 

 procuring lood. In front of its ejes it has certain appendages resembling hairs, 

 dilated at their extremity, form.ing baits. After having stirred up the mud or 

 sand it conceals itself and elevates these appendages : the small fishes coming to 

 seize tbem are drawn into its mouth. Plntarch likewise remarks that the Lophius 

 fishes witli a lino, for it throws out from its neck a filament which it extends to 

 a distance in the manner of a line, letting it out and drawing it back at pleasure ; 

 this being done when it perceives any little fishes about it, it allows them to bite 



