(i.) Mormyrinae, with teeth on the parasphenoid and tongue, with ventral, anal, and caudal fins, and a simple air-bladder; vertebrae 37 to 64; peculiar (Gemmingerian) linear bones, without known homologues, along each side of the tail, above and beneath the electric organ; scapular foramen in the scapula, or between the scapula and the coracoid. Mormyrops, Petrocephalus, Isichthys, Marcusenius, Stomatorhinus, Myomyrus, Gnathonemus, Genyomyrus, Mormyrus.
(ii.) Gymnarchinae, without teeth on the parasphenoid and tongue, without ventral, anal, or caudal fins, and with a cellular air-bladder; vertebrae about 120; Gemmingerian bones absent; scapular foramen in the coracoid. Gymnarchus.
Fossil Mormyrids are unknown.
Venerated by the ancient Egyptians, the Mormyrs of the Nile are frequently represented on hieroglyphics and mural paintings as well as in bronze models. Very little is known of the habits of these Fishes. Prof. G. Fritsch, of Berlin, during his stay in Egypt for the purpose of experimenting on electric Fishes, observed that they perish very rapidly when removed from the river, and he had the greatest difficulty in keeping some alive in an aquarium for two or three days. The species with comparatively large mouths (Mormyrops, Gymnarchus) feed principally on fishes and crustaceans, the others on tiny animals and vegetable and more or less decomposed matter. Delhez, on the Congo, found that many are attracted to the borders of the river in the neighbourhood of human dwellings, where they feed on the refuse thrown into the water. It is probable that the species with a rostrum use it to procure small prey hidden between stones or buried in the mud, and that the fleshy mental appendage with which many are provided is a tactile organ compensating the imperfection of the vision in the search for food. A small Mormyrid from the Congo (Stomatorhinus microps) has the eyes so much reduced and the skin so feebly pigmented as to convey the impression of a cave Fish. Until quite recently, absolutely nothing was known of the breeding habits and development in this important family. To the late J. S. Budgett we owe some very interesting observations made in the Gambia on Gymnarchus niloticus.[[644]] The Fish makes a floating nest, emerging on three sides, over which the male keeps a fierce watch; the recently-hatched larvae are remarkable for the enormous size of the yolk-sac, which hangs down, acting as a sort of anchor, and for the presence of long external branchial filaments, as in Selachian embryos. The Fish propels itself through the water entirely by the action of its dorsal fin, forwards and backwards with equal facility; when swimming rapidly backwards, it may be seen to use the end of its tail as a feeler to guide the way. Budgett has also identified, with some doubt, the eggs of Hyperopisus bebe, out of which emerged embryos not unlike those of some tailless Batrachians, which hung suspended to rootlets of grass in swamps by means of threads of viscid mucus secreted from glands on the top of the head.
Fig. 332.—Gymnarchus niloticus. ¼ nat. size.
Fam. 8. Hyodontidae.—Margin of the upper jaw formed by the praemaxillaries and the maxillaries, the latter the more developed and firmly united to the end of the former. Parietal bones separating the supraoccipital from the frontals; a large hole on each side of the skull, between the parietal, the squamosal, and the epiotic (paroccipital), closed by a large, thin, bony plate (the supratemporal), which extends over the greater part of the parietal; suboperculum and interoperculum small, the latter partly hidden below the praeoperculum. Basis cranii double. Jaws, palatines, pterygoids, vomer, parasphenoid, and glossohyal toothed; no pharyngeal teeth. Ribs sessile, inserted above and behind well-developed parapophyses; epineurals, no epipleurals. Pectorals low down, folding like the ventrals. Post-temporal forked; the upper branch attached to the epiotic, the lower to the squamosal; no post-clavicle; coracoids forming together a ventral keel; scapular foramen between scapula and clavicle; pterygials well developed, three in contact with coracoid. Ventrals with 7 rays. Branchiostegal rays in moderate number (8 to 10). Air-bladder communicating with the ear. No oviducts, the eggs falling into the abdominal cavity before exclusion.
Fig. 333.—Upper (A) and posterior (B) views of skull and pectoral arch of Hyodon alosoides (the supratemporal removed on the left side). bo, Basioccipital; cl, clavicle; cor, coracoid; eo, exoccipital; eot, epiotic; eth, ethmoid; f, frontal; m, maxilla; mcor, mesocoracoid; n, nasal; oo, opisthotic; p, parietal; pcl, postclavicle; pm, praemaxilla; por, praeorbital; ptf, postfrontal; ptr, pterygials; ptte, post-temporal; scl, supraclavicle; so, supraoccipital; sor, suborbital; sq, squamosal; ste, supratemporal.
Elongate, compressed, silvery Fishes, covered with moderate-sized cycloid scales; head naked; mouth large, with strong dentition; gill-openings wide; dorsal fin short, posterior to the ventrals; anal rather elongate; caudal well developed, forked.