LOPHIOIDS. 
1 O l 
the place of which in the system according to Cuvier’s® 
opinion is near the Gobioids, but according to Gun- 
ther’s 6 here by the side of the Trachinoids. To raise 
the family to the rank of an order, and thus give it 
an independent place in the system, is indeed the most 
convenient course for the systematizer — and on this 
point it is probable that some freedom must always 
lie granted to individual taste — but the procedure 
is to a certain degree misleading, if it places us in 
danger of overlooking the natural connexion between 
the forms. But Cope, as well as his successors Gill 
and Jordan and Gilbert, although they created such 
an order, have reminded us of the connexion between 
these tishes and the rest of the Eleutherognatesk 
Furthermore, the most distinctive characters of the 
Pediculati have their original patterns in the Batra- 
choids. Even in the latter the branch iostegal rays are 
extraordinarily long; and it is, in the first place, a 
greater (even if it be considerably greater) elongation 
of these rays — in conjunction with an increase of 
the membrane extended by them — which in the Lo- 
phioids gives the gill-cavity so great a width and length 
posteriorly that it extends under the base of the pectoral 
fins, and, in Lophius, even behind it. This membrane 
is also extended, however, by other rays: in Lophius 
from the upper part of the operculum goes a long and 
narrow process, which at the top assumes the form 
of a ray, and curves down through the branchiostegal 
membrane towards the angle of the pectoral tins' 2 ; and 
other rays, about 20 in number, form a finlike conti- 
nuation of the suboperculum in the branchiostegal mem- 
brane. The great elongation of the basal bones of the 
pectoral fins is also prefigured, as we have already 
seen, in the Batrachoids. In the Lophioids the lowest 
basal bone is always wanting, and in Lophius the 
uppermost as well; but the lowest of the remaining 
ones has taken the lead in development, and supports 
the whole of the broad pectoral fin on the hind margin 
of its wide, upturned top. The breaking-up of the 
first dorsal fin into free tentacles and spinous rays 
and its removal towards the head, so far that the first 
ray may lie set right out on the snout, is in fact no 
greater difference from the preceding family than that 
between the Sucking-fish ( Echeneis ), with its sucking- 
disk, and the typical Scombroids. The singular ex- 
tension of the mastoid bones ( ossa epiotica ) in the Eo- 
phioids, where these bones, as BruhiJ has shown, 
force themselves between the supraoccipital bone and 
other parts of the occipital region and there unite, a 
peculiarity which Cope has mentioned as a character 
of the Pediculati, appears both in Balistes (among the 
Plectognates) and in Anarrhiclias (among the Blennioids). 
Again, the character which has been assigned by Cope to 
the Plectognates, namely the union of the posttemporal 
bone to the skull by means of an osseous connexion with 
the mastoid bone ( epioticum ), has been shown by Lillje- 
borg' to belong also to Lophius. In the Lophiidce , as 
in the Batrachidce, there are only two upper pharyngeals. 
The family Lopliiidce is further distinguished by 
the most fantastic forms assumed by the body; and, 
as usual, the form of the body is adapted to the man- 
ner of life. Some forms are bottom-fishes with the 
body, in most cases at least, flattened; others again 
prefer to swim, or literally to crawl, among seaweeds 
and coral, and thus have the body strongly compressed 
laterally. All are comparatively poor swimmers; but 
some travel long distances by drifting with loose tufts 
of seaweed which are borne away by wave and tide, 
or by independently floating in the same way at the 
surface, by the help of the air with which they have 
inflated their stomach. All are voracious fish of prey, 
the small ones being naturally restricted in ordinary 
circumstances to smaller victims; but as a proof of 
their capacity in this respect we may mention the fact 
“ Mem. Mus. Hist. Nat. Tome III (1817) p. 420. Cf. also Cuv., R'egne Animal , ed. 2, tome II, p. 249 and Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. 
Poiss., tome 12, pp. 335 etc. 
J Systematic Synopsis, 1. c.; Introd. Study of Fisches, p. 469, Handb. Ichthyol., p. 332. 
c “They connect with the Percomorphi by the Blenniidcp, and Batrachidai ,” Cope. “Their relations are more intimate with the 
Batrachoid and Blennioid forms, and doubtless they have descended from the same common progenitors,” Gill. 
d Bleeker regards this process as corresponding to the whole operculum. The large, thick and angular bone of fairly uniform size 
which articulates superiorly with the hyomandibular bone — with the outside of which the preoperculum has coalesced like an irregular, 
longitudinal bar — would Ihen correspond to the suboperculum, while this bone, according to the general opinion, could be represented only 
by the triangular bone, furnished with strong spines in front and with rays behind, which is attached to the lower end of the operculum. 
The interoperculum, in Lophius a triangular, foliate bone, armed with a spine at the middle of the posterior margin, and, as usual, joined 
by a ligament to the angular part of the lower jaw, is not subject to this difference of opinion. 
e Osteologisches nus dem Pariser Pflanzengarten , taf. 2, fig. 3, 4, 8, 13; taf. 6, tig. 4. 
f Sv., Norg. Fiskar , vol. I, 767. 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
18 
