F L OU NDER-FI S H E S' . 
427 
membranes inferiorly independent 
or meeting each other in different 
planes, the one covering the other 
to a greater or less extent. 
a: Ventral fins free from the anal tin. 
aa: Scales, when present, cy- 
cloid. Median wall of the 
branchial cavity unbroken 
under the lower pharyn- 
o-eals. 
o 
Genus Botlius: 
a: Rays in the anal fin at 
most 50 Botlius maximus. 
i>: Rays in the anal fin more 
than 50 Botlius rhombus. 
bb: Scales, on the eye side at 
least, ciliated. Median wall 
of the branchial cavity 
broken between the lower 
pharyngeals and the uro- 
hyoid bone. 
a: Head of the vomer fur- 
nished with teeth. Scales 
of the blind side cycloid. 
Genus Lepidorliombus ... Lepidorhombus whiff. 
(3: Vomer toothless or with 
indistinct teeth. Scales 
of the blind side also 
ciliated. 
Genus Scophtlialmus Scophthahnus norvegicus. 
b: Ventral fins united by the fin- 
membrane to the beginning of 
the anal fin. Median wall of 
the branchial cavity broken be- 
tween the lower pharyngeals and 
the urohyoid bone. Head of the 
vomer furnished with teeth. 
Genus Zeugopterus Zeugopterus punctcitus. 
Genus PLATOPHRYS. 
size, small and pointed, set in a single or double rote on the intermaxillary hones and in 
in the lower jaw ■ Lower pharyngeal teeth set in a single row. All the fin-rays , except the 
Branchiostegal membranes inferiorly united into a broad , free fold : branchiostegal 
unbroken under the lower pharyngeals. No teeth on the vomer , 
Ventral fins free from the anal fin. 
daw-teeth of uniform 
one or several rows 
caudal rays proper , simple, 
rays 7. Median wall of the branchial cavity 
palatine bones , or tongue. 
This genus was established by Swainson" expressly 
to include the forms that are distinguished by the wide 
separation of the eyes, and belong chiefly to the tropical 
seas. Bleeker 6 and subsequently Gunther 0 called the 
same group Rhomb oidichthys; but the former soon' 7 re- 
stored Swainson’s name, and in his great work on the 
fishes of the Dutch East Indies he combined with this 
genus, though with the rank of a subgenus, another, 
Arnoglossus , which he had formerly 6 believed to require 
an independent place in the system. This union had 
been previously foreshadowed, however, by Gunther, who 
in his Catalogue, referred to the genus Rhomboidichthys 
a species ( Rh . mogki ) with fairly narrow, though con- 
cave, interorbital space. In this manner the genus 
Platophrys is made to embrace the Bothoid forms which 
are most widely separated by the different position of 
the eyes, but even in this respect connected by inter- 
mediate forms, and which fall under the characters 
given above. Most of these species, in which the eyes 
are more or less far apart, are further characterized by 
small and firmly attached scales — at least 80 in a row 
along the sides of the body — and, generally speaking, 
by the great depth of the body. These small-scaled 
species, which belong to the tropical seas all round the 
globe and .also to the Mediterranean and the Sea of 
Japan, form the subgenus for which Bleeker retained 
the name of Platophrys. 
a Nat. Hist. Fish., Amphib. and Rept., vol, It, pp. 187 and 302. 
h Act. Soc. Scient. Indo-NeerL, I (1856), Beschr. Visclis. v. Manado en Makassar, p. 67. 
c Cat. Brit. M us., Fish., vol. IV, p. 431. 
a Versl. en Meded. Akad. Wetensch. Amsterd., XIII (1862), p. 426. 
e L. c., p. 427. 
