_Corpus elongatum, compressum, nudum, alepidotum, porosissimum.
Rostrum breve, obtusum. Dentes acuti, subconici, in maxillâ
superiore uniseriati, in inferiore bi-vel tri-seriati; supra canini
duo fortiores, antici, et præ serie exstantes: in vomere dentes duo
vel tres acuti, quorum unus fortis; in utroque palatino uniseriati.
Lingua lævis. Oculi parvi. Apertura branchialis arctissima, membranâ
sex-radiatâ. Maxillarum margines poris conspicuis longitudinaliter
dispositis, simplicibus, haud in tubos productis. Pinnæ ventrales,
dorsalis et analis, ut in genere præcedenti._
This genus differs from _Iluocœtes_, in having the head and eyes
smaller, the snout scarcely at all produced, the teeth in front of the
lower jaw in two or three rows, and especially in the contracted
gill-opening, which is reduced to a small hole, relatively not much
larger than in the Eels, and in the branchial membrane having six rays.
It wants also the tubal cutaneous appendages on the jaws and cheeks, in
the place of which are rows of simple pores. It may be added that the
whole skin is every where studded with pores; smaller, however, than
those which form the maxillary series. The fins are similar, including
the minute ventrals; but the tail and caudal are more rounded, and the
membrane investing the rays of the dorsal and anal is more fleshy, so as
hardly to allow of the rays being counted.
This genus is yet more eel-like, and more malacopterygian in general
appearance than the last, serving to make the passage from the
_Blennidæ_ to the apodal division of the soft-finned fishes, still more
gradual and evident. Mr. Darwin obtained it at the Falkland Islands.
There is but one species in the collection referable to it.