LINGS. 
521 
the more forward position of the first dorsal fin". In 
the Southern Hemisphere Molua is replaced by the 
genus Lotella, which should perhaps be united with it. 
The body is covered in this genus with small, 
thin, oblong, elliptical scales, with a more or less (some- 
times considerably) eccentric nucleus, and with the 
striations arranged according to the same type as in 
the Cods but denser. The concentric s trial are so pre- 
dominant that the radiating ones form only narrow 
connecting lines, very often incomplete, between the 
concentric stride ; but the radiating lines are far from 
always opposed to or in continuation of each other on 
each side of a concentric striation. In this manner, 
however, a network is formed, as in the Cods, with 
quadrangular meshes; and in every mesh the scale- 
substance is thickened or raised, at least on the hind 
(free) part of the scale''. Where the radiating lines 
are interrupted, these thickened parts assume a con- 
tinuous, moniliform appearance, with one row of beads 
for each of the concentric striae. 
Only two or perhaps three species of the genus 
Molua are known. They belong to the Mediterranean 
and the North Atlantic. The two species which occur 
within the limits of the Scandinavian fauna may be 
distinguished as follows: 
A: Least depth of the tail less than T / 6 of 
the length of the head Molua clipterygia. 
B: Least depth of the tail more than V 5 °f 
the length of the head Molua molva. 
O 
THE LESSER LING (sw. birkelangan). 
MOLUA DIPTERYGIA. 
Plate XXVI, fig. 3. 
Body elongated , almost Eel-shaped , its greatest depth, being about 1 10 — 1 / 12 of its length. Least depth of the 
body ( about % of its length) less than 15 % of the length of the head or than half the length of the middle 
caudal rays. Total length of the head (in adult specimens ) less than 1 / 5 , its postorbital length less than 1 / ll , of 
the length of the body. Base of the first dorsal fin less than Vio °f ^ ,e length of the body or than Vs of the 
base of the second dorsal fin, and less than or at most 1 / 5 greater than its own height. The second dorsal fin 
begins at a distance from the tip of the snout less than 35 % of the length of the body, and its base occupies at 
least half of the length of the body. Base of the anal fin also greater than the distance between this fin and 
the tip of the snout, and measuring at least 45 % of the length of the body. Coloration above reddish or brown, 
below white or grayish; outer part of the pectoral fins, hind lobes of the second dorsal and the anal fins, and 
outer parts of the caudal fin, above and below, blackish. Iris orange. 
R. hr. 7; D. 11 — 14|74 — 83 ; A. 70 — 81; P. 18—20; V. 6; 
(J. .■r+24 — 30 -Kt; Vert. 78. 
Syn. Byrkelange, Strom, Sondm. Beskriv., pt. I, p. 275; Id., 
Trondbj. Selsk. Sln\, pt. Ill, p. 446, tab. 8; Gadus di- 
pterygius, cirratus, max. infer, longiore, p. anal. LXX, Mull., 
Zool. Dan. Prodr., p. 42. 
Gadus dypteri gius , Penn., Introd. Arct. Zool., ed. II, vol. I, 
p. CXXIV. 
Gadus Byrkelange, Walb., Ichtli. Art., pt. Ill (Gen. Pise.), 
p. 135; Coll. (Molva), Fork. Vid. Selsk. Christ. 1874, 
Tillaegsh., p. 116; Malm, Gbgs, Boh. Fn., p. 492; Mela, 
Vert. Fenn., p. 302, tab. IX; Storm (Lota), Norsk. Vid. 
Selsk. Skr. (Trondbj.) 1883, p. 35; Coll. (Molva), N. Mag. 
Naturv. Christ., Bd. 29 (1884), p. 84; Lillj., Sv., Norg. 
Fisk., pt. 2, p. 139; Hansen, Zool. Dan., Fiske, p. 83, 
tab. X, fig. 3, a. 
Gadus abyssorum, Nilss., Prodr. Ichtli. Scand., p. 4; Kr., 
(Lota), Danin. Fiske, vol. 2, p. 167; Nilss. (Molva), Slcand. 
Fn., Fisk., p>. 577. 
Obs. The question whether the Mediterranean Molua macro- 
phthalma (Phycis macro phthalmus, Rafin., Caratteri etc., p. 26, tab. 
IX, fig. 3; Lotta elongata, Risso, Ear. Mer ., tom. Ill, p. 217, fig. 47) 
is a distinct species from Molua dipterygia, seems to require further 
elucidation. Both Nilsson (Skand. Fn.) and Lilljeboeg have pointed 
out the great similarity between them, the latter writer with the 
reservation that a difference exists in the texture of the scales. This 
difference seems to consist in the fact that in the Mediterranean form 
the radiating striae are entirely wanting, and that the moniliform 
appearance of the concentric rings has thus disappeared. To judge 
by the measurements given by Lilljeborg, the Mediterranean form 
has also a still shallower peduncle of the tail (least depth of the tail 
only 11 1 / 3 % of the length of the head) and a shorter first dorsal fin 
(its base only 11 % of that of the second dorsal fin), this form being 
thus still further removed from the common Ling than Molua di- 
pterygia. To judge by Costa’s figure (Fauna del regno di Napoli , 
Pesci, parte prima, Malacotterigii Sottobrancbiali, p. 15, tav. XXXVIII) 
Molua macro phthalma seems also to be of a peculiar coloration, with 
transverse spots, perhaps traces of the earlier stages of its develop- 
ment, on the sides of the body. Still these differences cannot be of 
a Distance between the first dorsal fin and the tip of the snout less than 30 % of the length of the body. 
6 Cf. the scales of the Eels — see Baudelot, Arch. Zool. Exper., tom. 2 (1873), p. 198, pi. VIII, fig. 1 — 4. 
66 
Scandinavian Fishes. 
