118 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
premaxillaries; post-temporal simple, eoossified with the cranium; basis of cranium simple; pectoral 
fins with elevated bases; anterior vertebrae modified, the diapophyses much expanded; air-bladder 
simple, without air-duct; snout produced, bearing the small, toothless mouth at the end; gill-covers 
reduced to a large simple plate; skin with bony plates; muscular system little developed; the Syncjna- 
thidie have neither spinous dorsal nor ventral fins; the Solenostomidx of the Indian Ocean, constituting 
the suborder Solenostomi, have all the fins well developed. 
FAMILIES OF LOPHOBRANCHII. 
a. Spinous and soft dorsal present; ventral fins present; gill-openings wide Solenostomidx, p. 118 
aa. Spinous dorsal fin wanting; no ventral fins; gill-openings narrow Syngnathidse, p. 119 
Family XXXVIII. SOLENOSTOMIDX. 
Body compressed; tail very short; snout long, compressed, all parts covered with thin skin, 
below which is the dermal skeleton with star-like ossifications; spinous dorsal short; soft dorsal and 
anal long, with elevated base; caudal long; ventrals close together, inserted opposite spinous dorsal, 
each of 7 rays; the fins free in the male, in the female adnate to the body, forming a large pouch for 
the reception of the eggs; branchiostegals 4, very thin; intestinal canal simple. Singular fishes of the 
East Indies, constituting 1 genus. 
Genus 65. SOLENOSTOMUS Lac5p'ede. 
Characters of the genus included above. 
Solenostomus Lac<5pede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 360, 1803 (paradoxus) . 
78. Solenostomus cyanopterus Bleekef. Fig. 35. 
Head 2.2 in length; depth 5; D. v-20; P. 27; V. 7; A. 19; C. 15; depth of snout at middle 4.5 
in its length; eye 6.25 in snout; dorsal spines 2 in head; ventral equal to snout or a little more; caudal 
a little shorter than head; caudal peduncle shorter than base of second dorsal. 
Color pink, with small black dots like ink specks scattered over head and upper part of body; 
eye red; fins pale, the spinous dorsal with 2 long black ocelli (said to be dark blue .in life) on mem- 
branes of first and second spines; besides black dots, caudal with small inky spots like those on body, 
but more elongate, several of them drawn out into lines. The above description is taken from Jordan 
and Snyder’s Japanese specimen. The only Hawaiian reference is that given by Bleeker. It is doubtful 
if the species really occurs in these islands. 
Solenostomus paradoxus, Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind., Ill, 1852, 308 (Hawaii and Ceram); Kaup, Lophobranchiates, 1856, 
2 (lie de France, India, New Guinea); not of Pallas. ■ 
Solenostomus eyanopterum Bleeker, Nat. Tyds. Ned. Ind., VI, 1854, 507, Hawaii and Ceram; Gunther, Fishes of Zanzibar, 
137, pi. XX, figs. 2, 3, 1866 (Zanzibar); Gunther, Cat. Fish., VIII, 1870, 151 (Zanzibar, Ceram, China); Dum6ril, 
Hist. Poiss., II, 1870, 497 (New Guinea); Jordan & Snyder, Proc. TJ. S. Nat. Mus., XXIV, 1902 (Sept. 27, 1901), 4, 
pi. 3 (Boshu (Awa) Japan). 
