L O II I C A R r A. 
670 
LORET'TO (Order of). See the article Knighthood, 
vol. xi. p. 816. 
LO'RETZ, a river of Swifferland, which forms a com¬ 
munication between lake Zug and the river Reufs. 
LOR'GUES, a town of France, in-the department of 
the Var: fix miles fouth-wefc of Draguinan, and fifteen 
weft ofFrejus. 
LOR'ICA,/ A cuirafs, brigantine, or coat of mail, in 
ufe among the Roman foldiers. It was generally made of 
leather; and is fuppofed to be derived from lorum, Lat. a 
thong. The loricae were fet with plates of metal in va¬ 
rious forms ; fometiines in hooks or rings like a chain, 
Sometimes like feathers, and fometimes like the fcales of 
ferpents or fifties, to which plates of gold were often ad¬ 
ded. There were other lighter cuiraftes, confifting only 
of many folds of linen cloth, or of flax made ftrongenough 
to refill weapons. Such foldiers as were rated under 1000 
drams, inltead of the lorica now defcribed, wore a pedlo- 
rale only. 
LORICA'RIA.yi the Cuir.assier; in ichthyology, a 
genus of fifties of the order abdominales. Generic cha¬ 
racters—Head deprefled, mouth opening underneath, lips 
retraftile. The upper furface of the head is covered with 
a large bone. The body .is fhort; the tail long. The 
peCtoral fins are on the edge of the under furface, and 
clofe to the aperture of the gills; the firft ray is long and 
ftrong, and fattened to the clavicle by a joint, as in the 
filures. There is no corfelet on the belly. The mouth 
opens croffwife; the jaws are cartilaginous, and have a 
broad outer membrane to cover them. Thefe, in the of- 
feous tribe, may be called the reprefentatives of the ftur- 
geons among the cartilaginous, being fimilarly armed: 
Linnams gives fix rays in the branchial membrane for the 
generic character, Gronovius three; but the fa ft is, that 
membrane contains four rays. Part of the Linnsean cha¬ 
racter alfo is “ the mouth without teeth,” which is not 
correCt.—There are but two fpecies, with their varieties, 
properly belonging to the genus. Bloch has made them 
three, by adopting a variety as a fpecies,not perhaps without 
leafon. Dr. Shaw, by doing the fame, and by removing 
jbme of the Silures into this genus, has defcribed feven. 
We have confined ourfelves to the two original fpecies, 
with the addition only of an individual from Cepede, 
which feems to belong to this genus. 
i. Loricaria cataphraCta, the cataphrafted cuiraflier. 
Specific character, one dorfal fin, cirri two. There are 
four, rays in the membrane of the gills, ^ in the peCtoral 
fins, t in the ventrals and anal, 12 in the tail, and in 
the dorfal. The head is rounded in front, hard, rough, 
and arched at top; underneath fmooth, broad, flat, and 
fhaped like a horfe’s hoof. A broad membrane furrounds 
the month, which terminates on each fide in a fliort bar¬ 
bie. In the palate is a loofe briltly membrane ; there are 
two bones above in the throat, and one below, like a file. 
The noftrils are Angle; the eyes, which are near them, 
have a black pupil in a yellowilh-green iris. The gill-co¬ 
vert is very fmail; and the aperture, which is fmall, is at 
the edge of the bony covering; the membrane is at liberty, 
with flexible rays. The firft ray of the pectoral fin is broad, 
long, and ferrated on both fides ; the firlt of the ventral is 
ferrated alfo; but all the rays are rough. The belly is 
broad, and covered with rough plates joining to each other, 
but not knit one into the other like thole on the body. 
The front of the body is broad and fquare; and the corfe- 
lets are lozenge-fhaped; behind the ventral fin the body 
grows narrower, and the fides carinated. The tail is co¬ 
vered with connected rings to the pumper of eighteen. 
The anus is much nearer to the head than to the tail-fin, 
there is no appearance of a lateral line; the fins have rami¬ 
fied rays, that of the tail is bifurcated, its upper ray like 
a bridle, but brittle, and longer than the reft. The co¬ 
lour of this fifn is a brownifh yellow, irregularly marked 
with dark-brown fpots; there is a large dark-coloured fpot 
on the tail-fin. This is fliown on the annexed Engraving, 
at fig. i. 
The variety ft which has the outer and upper ray of the 
tail-fin as long as the whole body, is confidereJ by BI och 
as a dillinCt fpecies; but the characters of. the fpecies and 
the variety have been greatly confounded. Gronovius 
Hates the variety , which has the long ray In the tail-fin, 
to be toothlefs, while Bloch defcribes the mouth furnilhed 
with teeth. It will be lufficient to point out wherein it 
differs, which is chiefly in the head. i. The head is nar¬ 
rower, and ends in a blunt fnout, but not rounded ; lb 
that this forms a triangle, whereas the other was like a 
horfe-fboe. 2. This has a quantity of barbies at the 
mouth, and the mouth is larger, and furniflied with briftly 
teeth. 3. This not fpotted, and the long ray of the tail- 
fin is fometimes as longas the whole-body. 4. The belly 
is fmooth, and covered with fcales, not rough armour. 
It would be neceflary to be on the fpot where the fifti are 
caught to determine with certainty whether thefe differ¬ 
ences arife from age or fex, or whether they be really two 
diftinCl fpecies. From the reprefentation given by Cepede, 
(fee fig. 2.) they certainly appear very diitinCt. 
2. Loricaria plecoftomus, the guacari, or yellow ctiiraf- 
fier. Specific character, two fins on the hack. The membrane 
of the gills has four rays, the peCtoral fins feven, ventrals 
fix, the anal five, the tail fixteen, the firlt dorfal eight, the 
fecond one only. The head is flat, bony at top, rough, and 
doping; underneath it is broad, foft, fmooth, and ftraight. 
The aperture of the mouth is fmall, opening tranfverfely 5 
the teeth are like bridles; the lips are thin and broad; 
the lower one is warty, and has a barbie on each fide; the 
palate and tongue are fmooth. The noftrils are Angle, 
and nearer the eyes than the muzzle ; the pupil of the eye 
is black, the iris white and green. The corfelets, or bony 
armour, are rough, with a fliarp fpine in the middle of each 
piece ; each fide is covered longitudinally with four rows 
of thefe pieces; the middle rows are larger than thofe near 
the back and belly. The anus is in the middle of the 
body ; the lateral line is not perceptible. The fins are long, 
with rough four-branched rays ; the firft ray of the dor¬ 
fal and peCtorals is ftiff, ftrong, ferrated, and furnifhed 
with a joint or hinge; the firlt ray of the ventrals is a ftiff 
ray alfo. Theouter rays of the tail-fin are long, and the 
two ends of the fork are feldom equal. Orange is the 
prevailing colour in this fifti, growing lighter towards the 
belly, which is whitifh ; the fins are of the fame colour 
with the body, except the membranous part of the dorfal, 
which is blackifh. There are brown ipots all over the 
body and fins; thofe caught in St. Francois river have 
the brown fpots intermingled with black ones; and thefe 
are more flefhy and better food than fuch as are found in 
other parts of South America, which is their natural abode. 
When the fhell is taken off, they may be eaten either 
boiled or fried. The inteftiaal canal is very long; Mar¬ 
grave found it to be eight feet in length in a fifti of fifteen 
inches. See fig. 3. 
As Cepede makes a fingle dorfel fin part of the generic 
character of the Loricaria, he places this in a feparate ge¬ 
nus, and calls it Hypoltomus guacari;-and he has given 
a variety of it, which we have copied at fig. 4. 
3. Loricaria corydoras, the helmeted cuiraflier. Specific 
character, head covered with broad hard plates, mouth at 
the extremity ; two dorfal fins, cirri none. In the firft 
dorfal fin rays, two in the fecond, eleven in the peCto¬ 
rals, fix in the ventrals, feven in the anal, and fourteen 
in the tail. This is from the Dutch colled ion at Paris* 
It departs from the generic character, in having the mouth 
at the end of the fnout, not underneath, and therefore 
Cepede makes it a diitinCt genus. Corydoras; from corys, 
w'hich in Greek fignifies a helmet, and doras, a cuirafs. 
The pieces of armour are difpoied in two rows; they are 
very broad, and of an hexagonal form. The two rays 
of the fecond dorfal fin are feparated by a long mem¬ 
brane ; the firft ray of each peCtoral is.befet with very fmall 
prickles; the fecond ray of the firlt dorfal is. ferrated on 
one fide; the firft ray is not ferrated, and is very fhort, 
but ftiff. The noftrils are double. A large lamina lies- 
over each peCtoral fin. 
To LOR'ICATE, v.a. To plate, over.—Nature hath 
loricated^, 
