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In the year 1850 Guichenot described a small Gadoid, of which he possessed 3
specimens from Algiers. He placed them in the neighbourhood of the genus Gadus (“morue”
and “merlan”), but formed for them a special genus, Gadiculus, characterised by the
unusual size of the eyes and by the lack of vomerine teeth. On Pl. 6, fig. 2 he gave a
figure, which is not specially good but yet permits us to recognise the species.
Otherwise Guichenot’s description is far from complete, perhaps due to the fact that the 3
specimens, he had at his disposal, were badly preserved (“trois individus altérés”, is
remarked by Guichenot himself).
Gadiculus has later been rediscovered by a number of naturalists, first by Günther
(1874), who describes a specimen of 51/2 in. in length taken on 18/6 1869 in 183 fathoms
west of the British Isles (55°10’ N., 10°59’ W.) by the Porcupine Expedition. Günther
saw already, and all later authors after him, that the genus Gadiculus oould not be
maintained on the basis of the absence of vomerine teeth, since these may be absent or present
by individual variation.
Our acquaintance with Gadiculus and its distribution has been greatly extended
by various later publications, especially by the work of Bellotti (1879), Vaillant
(1888), Holt (1892), Holt and Calderwood (1895) and Collett (1901). As Collett
(1901) gives a very careful summary of the literature on Gadiculus, it is superfluous to
enter into all details here. For these, reference may be made to Collett and I shall
confine myself to some few remarks.
Whilst all authors, as mentioned, are agreed, that the genus Gadiculus cannot be
maintained on the bais given it by Guichenot, namely, lack of vomerine teeth, there
is still lack of agreement as to its systematic position. Various authors, for example,
refer it directly to the Gadus genus (Collett 1901). others owing to the absence of a
barbel to Merlangus (after Vaillant 1888), others again maintain the name either as
genus or as subgenus (Holt). It seems to me (1905, p. p. 64), that there is very good reason
for separating it from the true Gadus species merely from the characters, which have
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