History of the Sternoptixinae, a family of the osseous fishes, and their anatomical peculiarities, with a description of the Sternoptix celebes, a species not hitherto noticed / [Peter David Handyside].

  • Handyside, P. D. (Peter David), 1808-1881
Date:
[1839]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: History of the Sternoptixinae, a family of the osseous fishes, and their anatomical peculiarities, with a description of the Sternoptix celebes, a species not hitherto noticed / [Peter David Handyside]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of fishes, to submit the species under consideration as a new genus, although (as we have shewn) the characters peculiar to it might justify such a course, and rather, as the species of the family of Sternoptix which we now know, do not exceed three, I propose to confine myself at present to attempting to sup¬ ply what is manifestly a desideratum in the natural history of this tribe of fishes—a description of the anatomical peculi¬ arities of a family of fishes, which, from its extreme rarity, lias been left hitherto unnoticed, adopting in my description that subdivision of it into two genera, which Cuvier antici¬ pated, we have seen, would eventually be found justifiable. Selecting, then, the character of presence or absence of pellucidity in the caudal region, and making the distinction to depend on that,—a character indeed which serves accurately to distinguish the two already known genera of this family, I shall, from the existence of pellucidity in the example before us, classify it with Hermann’s species, naming it simply from its locality. Thus, adopting Cuvier’s classification of fishes, we find the position occupied by the Sternoptix Celebes in the following analysis :— OSSEOUS FISHES. Order II.—MALACOPTEKYGII ABDOMINALES. Fam. IV. (a) Salmonidas. (Earn. Y. ?) (b) Sternoptixinje. Gen. I. Sternoptix diapliana. S}?ecies a, S. Hermannii. /3, S. Celebes. Gen. 2. Sternoptix Olfersii. Sect. II. On the Sternoptixince. Family in general. Locality. The Sternoptix is a small osseous fish, of a very remarkable form, and of rare occurrence, confined apparently to the East andWcst India islands, and the warmer parts of the Atlantic. Size. When full grown, it does not exceed from two to three inches in length, exclusive of the tail; its height, exclusive of the fins, is almost equal to its length; while in thickness it does not exceed three-quarters of an inch, that is, about one-third of its height.* Form. Its body is high, and greatly compressed, supported laterally