GLOBEFISH. A marine fish of the family Tetraodontithe and order Plectognathi (q.v.), re markable for its power of inflation. These fishes possess a large, ventral, bladder-like expansion of the oesophagus, which may be filled with water or air so suddenly that the body assumes at once a spherical form. The skin is stretched to its utmost extent, and becomes firm. The scales are mostly reduced to spines imbedded in the skin, and these spines now stand upright, and form an important protective covering. This power of swelling suddenly must be regarded as an adaptation for defense, since the distended fish can hardly be grasped with impunity by the mouth of any predaceous animal. The fishes of this group are chiefly tropical, and some species are as large as a football, or larger, and used as food. Two or three species occur along the eastern coast of the United States, of which one (Spheroides turgidus) is very abundant, espe cially along the rocky shores of southern New England and Long Island, where it is known as swelldoodle, puffer, eggfish, and bellows-fish.
It is often caught with a hook, and hundreds, usually small, are taken with every haul of a seine. When lifted from the water it imme diately inflates its body by means of short, jerk ing inspirations of air, and if dropped on the ground will bound about like a rubber ball; or if thrown in the water will bob about for some time at the surface, with little control over its movements, and relieving itself with difficulty of its inflation. It forms a very amusing tenant of a salt-water aquarium. A well-known globe fish of the Nile is the fahaka (Tetrodon fahaka). A large edible West Indian species (Lagocephalus lcrvigatus) is better known as 'rabbit-fish' See Plate of PLECTOGNATH FISHES.