224 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Genus LUMPENUS. 
Body elongated, anteriorly terete, in the caudal part strongly compressed laterally (ribbon-shaped), and covered with 
very small scales. Cheeks, as a rule, and sometimes even the occiput, covered with scales; the rest of the head 
naked and without dermal fringes. Length of the head and snout moderate, or, in proportion to the depth of the 
head, fairly great. Gape only slightly turned upwards, or even horizontal. Gill-openings large, sloping distinctly 
forwards , the branchiostegal membranes being separate, and’ free to the very point of the isthmus. One continuous 
dorsal fin, containing only spinous rays, along the whole of the back behind the head. Anal fin long, and with 
one spinous ray at the beginning; the other rays articulated and (usually distinctly ) branched. Ventral fins of 
moderate length, or, in proportion to the length of the body, fairly short, and with one spinous and three a soft rays. 
Bays of the pectoral fins often all branched h except the top one. Branched rays of the caudal fin few (under 13?). 
Lateral line indistinct, situated at the middle of the sides. Branchiostegal rays 6 or 7. Pseudobrancliice present, 
but sometimes indistinct. Air-bladder wanting. Pyloric appendages usually small, 2 or 3 in nurnbet. 
This genus was founded in 1835 by Reinhardt, 
when in his study of the Blennies of Greenland, he 
had to define Blennius lumpen us of Fabricius. The 
genus is an arctic one, with a circumpolar range, but 
with an extension in the Pacific down fo California, and 
in the Atlantic to Cape Cod in the west and Scandi- 
navia and Scotland in the east. Only from 5 to 7 
species can lie recognised as defined with more or less 
certainty; but for these species Gill c established five 
distinct genera, which by Collett'*, however, were with 
reason reduced to three, with the rank of only sub- 
genera: Leptoblennius, with teeth in the jaws only; 
Lumpenus, with teeth in the jaws and on the palatine 
bones; and Leptoclinus, with teeth in the jaws, on the 
palatine bones and on the vomer. This division had 
already been proposed, though without any reference 
to the naming of the subgenera, by Reinhardt" in his 
study of the species belonging to Greenland; and for 
the Scandinavian species Nilsson 7 had proposed an ana- 
logous division of the genus, employing the name of 
Lumpenus, though essentia lly in the meaning later ap- 
plied to Leptoblennius, still with the addition that this 
subgenus was without canine teeth. In Nilsson’s writ- 
ings Leptoclinus is called Ctenodon, a generic name 
previously employed in zoology and therefore here un- 
tenable. Collett 5 ', however, has remarked the worth- 
lessness of the character derived from the presence or 
absence of palatine teeth* 1 : and even though the canine 
teeth, as Fries 1 has also pointed out, are well-deve- 
loped, and clearly distinct from the other jaw-teeth, in 
one of the Scandinavian species, still this character is 
only relative, as in the other species the jaw-teeth also 
vary in size. The changes of growth are also of great 
importance here, as in other genera. Collett has re- 
marked that the palatine teeth are developed later than 
the jaw-teeth; and, to judge by individual variations, 
it seems to be true that the palatine teeth often dis- 
appear, in old specimens at least. Other, equally im- 
portant- changes of growth are remarked by Malmgren 
in his valuable account of the fishes of Spitsbergen'. 
He there shows, with regard to the two species Lum- 
penus medius and L. Fabricii, established by Reinhardt, 
how the length of the head and of the pectoral and 
ventral fins, as well as the depth and thickness of the 
a Lumpenus anguillaris and L. nubilus are stated, however, to have four soft rays in the ventral fins. 
b Sometimes even the lowest are simple. 
c Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1864, p. 209. 
d N. Nordhavs-Expedition, Zool., Fiske, p. 63. 
e Dske Vid. Selsk. Math. Naturv. Afb., Deel 7 (1838), p. 194. 
f Skandmavisk Fauna , Fiskarne, p. 190. 
9 Norske Nordhavs-Expedition, Zool., Fiske, p. 64. 
h It is easy to judge of the effects involved in this division of the genus, when one has to determine the species belonging to it. 
The Vega Expedition brought home three large specimens of Lumpenus Fabricii from Najtschkaj, just north-west of Behring Strait, the largest 
being 344 mm. in length. They have D. 60 — 65, A. 1 / i)2 and V . 1 / 3 ; but two of them are entirely without palatine or vomerine teeth, 
and should thus, according to Gill, be referred to the genus Leptoblennius, while the third specimen has teeth on the anterior part of the 
palatine bones, and thus shows the correct determination of the others as well. 
i Vet. Akad. Handl. 1837, p. 52. 
7 (Jfvers. Vet. Akad. Fork. 1864, pp. 519 — 521. 
