In their geographic variation the ventrals and subcaudals follow clines, and do not in themselves warrant subspecific divisions.
Scalation is remarkably uniform in all the subspecies of sirtalis, but coastal and northern populations tend to have fewer ventrals and subcaudals than do their counterparts farther inland and farther south.
In some the pale area of the lateral stripe is in varying degrees suffused with red, which may extend onto the edges of the ventrals and even to the underside of the tail.
The ventrals are dull, whitish, faintly suffused with yellowish, greenish or bluish, each ventral having a black dot usually of semicircular shape on its anterior margin near the anterolateral corner.
These specimens from Colorado also differ from typical parietalis in having the black spots on the anterolateral edges of the ventrals less developed.
The dark dorsal color extends down the sides onto the lateral corners of the ventrals and the subcaudals.
The high number of ventrals and caudals, together with the uniform dark brown dorsum, provide a combination of characters indicating that this specimen may represent an undescribed species in the deppei group of Pituophis.
The only scale characters utilized in the present study are the numbers of ventrals and caudals.
There is slight sexual dimorphism in the number of ventrals and somewhat greater differences in the number of caudals.
Likewise, there is a difference in the number of ventrals between the northern and southern samples; those from the north have an average of 228.
Variation in the Numbers of Ventrals and Caudals in Four Subspecies of Pituophis.
The average number of ventrals gradually increases toward the north in Tantilla gracilis except in southern Oklahoma and central Arkansas (the area of intergradation between T.
It has two oblong dark blotches in the cleft of the lower jaw, and a heavy dark line running from the ventrals to the pectoral fin; these markings are more pronounced in the male, being quite faint or wanting in the female.
The venter is dark grayish brown with cream-colored flecks anteriorly and creamy gray posteriorly where the dark color is restricted to the midventral region and the lateral edges of ventrals and first dorsal scale-row.
Except for the dark lateral spots (when present) the ventrals are immaculate white.
Except for the lateral spots (when present) the ventralsare immaculate white.
In some specimens of Conophis the lateral tips of the ventrals are spotted, one spot on each end of each ventral.
The ventrals usually have more or less conspicuous dark spots laterally; in some specimens there are no spots.
In ten males from Oaxaca the size of the dorsal scales relative to that of the ventrals is 1.
The low numbers of ventrals and caudals in specimens from Michoacan, as compared with more northern populations, may be indicative of a trend in the reduction of the numbers of these scutes from north to south.
These data show that, although there is little difference in the number of caudals, specimens from the Sierra de Coalcoman have fewer ventrals than do specimens from the Cordillera Volcanica.
The Centrarchi one to the ventralsand six to the anal.
The Gristes one to the ventrals and three to the anal.
The ventrals are in a line with the tip of the gill cover and first soft dorsal ray, and from the extreme narrowness of the pelvis are close to each other.
A cross section of the body at the ventrals is ovate, approaching to an oval, the obtuse end being upwards.
Suckers (Lepidogaster), where the pectorals and ventralsform two disks.
The ventrals are thoracic, with the rays in increased number, as in Zeus and Beryx, with each of which it suggests affinity.
The thoracic ventrals have one spine and eight rays.
The persistent air-duct excludes it from the Percesoces, the normally formed ventrals from the Berycoidei.
The ventrals are abdominal, formed of two rays, and the very large pectoral fin is placed horizontally like a great wing.
The ventrals are thoracic with the normal number, I, 5, of fin-rays.
Bembras japonicas, another little Japanese fish, with the ventrals advanced in position and the skin with rough plates, is the type of the family of Bembradidæ.
Guavina guavina of Cuba is another species of this type, and numerous other species having separate ventrals are found in the East Indies, the West Indies, and in the islands of Polynesia.
The body is short and slender, the ventrals with five rays, the dorsal and anal short.
Thus fin spines, ctenoid scales, and the homocercal tail are lost in the codfishes, the connection of ventrals with shoulder-girdle fails in the Percesoces, etc.
The pectorals have the lower rays unbranched, and the ventrals are in advance of the pectorals, and have each a spine and five rays.
Either or both pairs may be absent, but the ventrals are much more frequently abortive than the pectorals.
Such scales are possessed in general by the more specialized types of bony fishes, as the perch and bass, those with thoracic ventrals and spines in the fins.
Dean regards this as the most primitive of the sharks, and the position of the pectorals and ventrals certainly lend weight to Balfour's theory that they were originally derived from a lateral fold of skin.
The ventrals when abdominal are usually without spines.
In the gobies the united ventrals have some adhesive power.
In the later species the pectoral fins become gradually larger and the ventrals move forward.
In general, however, the more primitive representatives of the typical fishes, those with abdominal ventrals and without spines in the fins, have cycloid or smooth scales.
When the action of the tail ceases the pectorals and ventrals are spread out wide and held at rest.
With the elongation of the body and its increase in flexibility there is a tendency toward the loss of the paired fins, the ventrals going first, and afterwards the pectorals.
In the fishes with jugular ventrals these fins have begun a process of degeneration by which the spines or soft rays or both are lost or atrophied.
The character came with the thoracic ventrals with reduced number of rays, the ctenoid scales, the toothless maxillary, and other characters which have long persisted in their subsequent descendants.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "ventrals" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
