a. and sb. Ichthyol. [f. as prec. + -ATE.] a. adj. Belonging to or having the characteristics of the order Lophobranchii; having the gills disposed in tufts. b. sb. A lophobranchiate fish; pl., the order Lophobranchii (see quot. 1842).
1834. McMurtrie, Cuvier’s Anim. Kingd., II. 228. Lophobranchiate fishes … eminently distinguished by the gills, which … are divided into small round tufts.
1842. Brande, Dict. Sci., etc., Lophobranchiates, an order of Osseous fishes, comprehending those in which the gills are in the form of small tufts, and disposed in pairs along the branchial arches; as in the pipe-fish and hippocamp.
1881. Seeley, in Cassell’s Nat. Hist., V. 12. In … the Plectognathi and Lophobranchiates, the otolites are represented by calcareous dust.
So Lophobranchous a.
1856. J. E. Gray, Kaup’s Catal. Lophobranchiate Fish Brit. Mus., Pref. Lophobranchous Fishes.
