sole no stoma

[Prefix sole no-, and Greek stoma a mouth.] Ichthy.: The sole recent genus of So lenos tom ide Sole no stoma Cyanopterum. (q. v.), with two or three small species from the Indian Ocean. Snout produced into a long tube; body compre ed, tail very short. All parts covered with thin skin, below which there is a dermal skeleton, formed by large starlike o ifications. No air-bladder or pseudo branch iæ; branch ios teg als four, very thin. This genus is remarkable as being one of the two genera of fishes in which the care of the eggs and young is undertaken by the female, the other being the Siluroid genus Aspredo. In Sole no stoma the inner side of the ventral fins coalesces with the integuments of the body, forming a large pouch for the reception of the eggs. In the illustration the ventral fins have been pushed aside so as to show the pouch.