15- ' ENDEAVOUR ' SCIENTIFIC RESULTS. 



Family TRICHIURIDvE. 



Genus LEPIDOPUS, Gouan. 



LEPIDOPUS CAUDATUS, Euphrasen. 



Frost Fish. 



Lepidopus caudatus (Euphrasen), Day, Fish. Gt. Brit, and 

 Ireland, i., 1880-1884, p. 156, pi. li., fig. 2 (synonymy). 

 Lepidopus argyreus, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. 

 Poiss., viii., 1831, p. 223, pi. ccxxiii. 



Thirteen specimens, 480-1580 mm. long, only differ from 

 Day's description in having the first dorsal spine placed over 

 the hinder part, of the preoperculum instead of the posterior 

 half of the opercle. When fresh they are uniformly silver in 

 colour, and darker on top of the head ; the dorsal fin is 

 largely colourless, but has a narrow black margin, and two 

 black blotches anteriorly between the rays. After long 

 preservation in formalin the silver colour is entirely destroyed, 

 and eight longitudinal yellow bands appear, one of which is 

 broader than the others, and extends along the whole length 

 of the lateral line ; a precisely similar marking is illustrated 

 in Goode & Bean's figure of Evoxymetopon tceniatus. 1 



LOGS. -Thirty -two miles S.E. of Genoa Peak, Victoria, 200 

 fathoms ; 2nd October, 1914. 



Seventeen miles S.W. of Gabo Island, Victoria, 240 

 fathoms ; 14th September, 1914. 



Sub-genus BENTHODESMUS, Goode & Bean. 



Benthodesrmis, Goode & Bean, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., iv., 

 1881, p. 380, and Oceanic Ichth., 1895, p. 204 

 (Lepidopus elongatus, Clarke). 



The genus Benthodesmus appears to me to be hardly worthy 

 of recognition. Goode & Bean have enumerated several 

 characters to distinguish it from Lepidopus, but some of them, 

 such as the rudimentary occipital crest, more slender head, 

 and more numerous rays are merely due to its more slender 

 form ; others such as the simple anal scales and forward 

 position of the ventrals are not maintained in my specimen 

 of B. elongatus. I have compared a young Lepidopus ca.udatus 

 with B. elongatus, and find the structures essentially identical, 

 though the largely developed mental prominence, lack of 

 gill-rakers on the third and fourth arches, and the forward 

 position of the vent may perhaps maintain Benthodesmus as 

 a sub -genus. 



1. Goode & Bean Oceanic Ichth., 1895, p. 204, pi. Iviii., fig. 214. 



