1911.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 55;) 



Color in alcohol pale or dull brownish, largely uniform, photophores 

 all paler or whitish. Abdominal edge and isthmus all dusky or 

 blackish, photophores conspicuously white with black pigment 

 about their edges. All photophores with deep brown edges. Fins 

 pale or whitish-brown. Iris slaty. 



Length 6| inches. 



Type, No. 7,955, A. N. S. P. Italy. C. L. Bonaparte, No. 349. 

 From Dr. T. B. Wilson. 



The above-described example apparently represents a rare species 

 entirely distinct from any in the genus Stomias. Several authors 1 

 have recently 2 confounded it with Stomias boa (Risso). It differs 

 from that species, however, in many respects. S. boa is said to have 

 the upper jaw furnished with 8 separated unequal curved teeth, and 

 those on the premaxillaries small. It is also said to have the mandi- 

 ble well protruded and furnished with 14 curved teeth, and the 

 ventrals very long and filiform. Risso's rude figure 3 shows them 

 about the last third in the space between the hind eye edge and the 

 caudal base, and if depressible but little short of the anal origin. 

 Risso also shows the caudal greatly forked, no barbel, and only 

 about 3 teeth in each jaw. Valenciennes, in giving a detailed account 4 

 of the Esox boa Risso, shows the type of Cuvier's genus Stomias to 

 have been based on Risso's specimen. Stomias barbatus Cuvier 5 

 was surely an unsatisfactory species, distinguished from S. boa by 

 the supposed difference in having a hyoid barbel or filament, the 

 latter having been entirely overlooked in S. boa. Cuvier's account 

 is thus very incomplete and unsatisfactory, merely a line of valueless 

 diagnosis, and must therefore be submerged in the synonymy of 

 Esox boa Risso. For these reasons I have been obliged to rename 

 the present species. Gunther very properly allowed the Bonaparte 

 species as distinct, and the subsequent confusion with S. boa (Risso) 

 may have been due to Moreau's remarks. 



I may here note that Stomias dates from Oken, 7 Cuvier's account* 

 being in the vernacular, and the type Esox boa Risso. 



The accompanying figure is somewhat restored, and for this 

 allowance must be made. 



(Named for Charles Lucien Bonaparte.) 



1 Ocean. Ich., 1895, p. 106, PL 34, fig. 28. 



2 Wiss. Ergeb. Deutsch. Ti-efs. Ex., XV, 1906, p. 19. 



3 Hist. Nat. Eur. Mr,:. Ill, 1S26, p. 440, PI. 16, fig. 40. 



* Hist. Nat. Pol**., XVIII, 1S46, p. 273, PI. 515. 



5 Regne Animal, Ed. 2, II, 1829, pp. 2S3, 2S4. 



6 Hist. Nat. Poiss. France, III, 1881, p. 490. 



7 Isis, 1817, p. 11S.5. 



* Regne Animal, II, 1S17, p. LS4. 



