(page 518)

THE TOADFISHES. FAMILY BATRACHOIDIDAE


Table of Contents

The toadfishes are somewhat sculpin-like in appearance, but the resemblance is superficial, for their ventral fins are situated on the throat well in front of the pectoral fins ("jugular"), and they have only three gills and three gill arches. Both the soft and the spiny portions of the dorsal fin are well developed as separate fins, the former much longer than the latter. Most of the species belong to warm seas, only one reaching the Gulf of Maine.[82]



[82] See Schultz and Reid (Copeia, 1937, No. 4, p. 211) for a synopsis of the American-Atlantic species of the genus Opsanus.