Fig. 106.—Pelor filamentosum (Family Triglidæ, Mauritius).
The species of Pelor ([fig. 106]) present greater resemblance to those of Synanceia, owing to their heads being crushed in in front. Their eyes stand up above the head and are very close together, which helps to give them an extremely ugly appearance. The skin is soft and spongy, and bristles with jagged fleshy shreds.
Their poison-apparatus is placed in the dorsal fins, as in the case of Scorpæna and Pterois.
2.—Trachinidæ.
Genus Trachinus (Weevers).—Four species of Weevers are found in European seas: the Greater Weever (Trachinus draco), the Lesser Weever (T. vipera), the Striped-headed Weever (T. radiatus), and the Mediterranean Spider Weever (T. araneus); other species are met with on the coast of Chile.
Weevers possess two sets of poison-apparatus, one of which is situated on the operculum, the other at the base of the spines of the dorsal fin ([fig. 107]).
Fig. 107.—Trachinus vipera (Lesser Weever).
The spine surmounting the operculum exhibits a double cannelure connected with a conical cavity excavated in the thickness of the base of the opercular bone. This spine is covered with a sheath, beneath which lie the secreting cells. The gland is an offshoot from the skin, and appears as a simple follicle invaginated in the opercular bone ([fig. 108]).