FISHES-CYCLOPTERIDAE-LEPADOGASTER 
129 
with transverse series of black spots simulating continuous narrow bands. The pectorals and 
ventrals are unicolor and rather lighter than the belly and inferior surface of the head. The 
upper surface of the head presents the same hue as the hack. 
List of specimens. 
Catal. 
No. 
No. of 
specs. 
Sex and 
age. 
Locality. 
When col¬ 
lected. 
Whence obtained. 
Nature of 
specimens. 
Collected by— 
360 
24 
Adult.. 
Tomales Bay, Cal_ 
1856 
E. Samuels_ 
Alcoholic_ 
E. Samuels_ 
Family CYCLOPIE RID AE, Bonap. 
The body is scaleless and protected by a naked skin, sometimes flabby, at others leathery, and 
occasionally studded with small indurated plates. The united ventral fins are discoid; their 
soft rays being undivided. The same is true with regard to the rays of the pectorals, except 
in the genus Cyclopterus, where they bifurcate. The anterior dorsal fin is often wanting or else 
reduced to a mere unnoticed rudiment. There are three and half gills, the fourth having hut 
one branchial comb. The last branchial aperture or split is wanting. 
Syn.— Cyclopteridae, Bonap. Sagg. Distr. meth. Anim. Veit. 1831, 118.— De Kay, N. Y. Faun. IY, 1842,305.— Stoker, 
Synops. 1846, 228. 
The representatives of this family are mostly acanthopterians, Lepadogaster being a malacop- 
terian. It has been observed by Joh. Muller that the pyloric appendages do not constitute a 
family trait; the latter being quite numerous in the genus Cyclopterus, or Lump-fish, whilst 
they are entirely wanting in Lepadogaster and Gobiesox , which belong to the same family. The 
papila genitalis, the same anatomist has observed in both sexes in the species of Lepadogaster, 
and at least in the male sex in the species of Gobiesox. 
LEPADOGASTER, Gouan. 
Gen. Char. —Head large, broad and depressed, without tentacles. Mouth moderate sized, provided with small and conical 
teeth upon the premaxillaries and the lower jaw. Palate smooth. Body scaleloss, anteriorly broad and sub-depressed, posteri¬ 
orly compressed and tapering. One soft-rayed dorsal fin more or less elongated, not continuous with the caudal. Anal fin 
elongated also and likewise separated from the caudal. Posterior margin of caudal fin rounded off. Ventrals united into a 
sub-circular abdominal disc, conjointly with a portion of the pectorals. Branchial apertures continuous under the throat and 
partly overlapped by the anterior edge of the abdominal disc. 
Syn. — Lepadogaster, Gouan, Hist. Pise. 1770.—Risso, Ichth. de Nice, 1810; Hist. nat. Eur. merid. Ill, 1826, 271.— 
Cuv. Regn Anim. II, 1817, 224 ; 2d, ed. II, 1829 ; & ed. lllustr. Poiss. 307. 
The generic characters which are here assigned to Lepadogaster are chiefly derived from the 
species of our western coast, the only one at our command at the present time. The numerous 
species which have been referred to this genus must be distributed into several genera with 
more closely defined characters. 
