Identifier: fishes00jord (
find matches)Title:
FishesYear:
1907 (
1900s)Authors:
Jordan, David Starr, 1851-1931Subjects:
FishesPublisher:
New York, H. Holt and CompanyContributing Library:
Smithsonian Institution LibrariesDigitizing Sponsor:
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view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.Text Appearing Before Image:st shown in the Myctophidcsand Stomiatidcc, but are found in numerous other families innearly all soft-rayed fishes of the deep sea. The glandular areas may be placed on the lower jaw, on thebarbels, under the gill cover, on the suborbital or preorbital,on the tail, or they may be irregularly scattered. Those aboutthe eye have usually the reflecting membrane. In all these structures, according to Dr. von Lendenfeld, thewhole or part of the organ is glandular. The glandular partis at the base and the other structures are added distally. Theprimitive organ was a gland which produced luminous slime. 62 Adaptations of Fishes To this in the process of specialization greater complexity hasbeen added. The luminous organs of some fishes resemble the supposedoriginal structure of the primitive photophore, though ofcourse these cannot actually represent it. The simplest typeof photophore now found is in Astronesthes, in the form ofirregular glandular luminous patches on the surface of the skin.Text Appearing After Image:Fio. 47 —.1 r.jijropelecus olfersi Cuvier. Gulf Stream. There is no homology between the luminous organs of any insectand those of any fish. Photophores of Porichthys.—Entirely distinct in their originare the luminous spots in the midshipman (Porichthys notatus),a shore fish of California. These have been described in detailby Dr. Charles Wilson Greene (late of Stanford University, nowof the University of Missouri) in the Journal of Morphology,XV., p. 667. These are found on various parts of the body inconnection with the mucous pores of the lateral lines and aboutthe mucous pores of the head. The skin in Porichthys is naked,and the photophores arise from a modification of its epidermis.Each is spherical, shining white, and consists of four parts—the idaptation8 of Fishes 63 lens, the gland, the reflector, and the pigment. As to its func-tion Prof. Greene observes: I have kept specimens of PoricJithys in aquaria at the Hop-kins Seaside Laboratory, and have made numerous observaNote About Images Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original work.