NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 253 



* Lateral line interrupted. Vomerine and palatine 



teeth Bythites. 



** Lateral line double behind. Vomerine teeth... Pteridium. 

 AA. Pyloric caeca in moderate number (about 12). Ven- 

 tral fins inserted under or nearly under eyes Sirembin^. 



* Preoperculum unarmed Sirembo. 



** Preoperculum with three spines Hoplobrotula.* 



?I6. Body naked, very long and compressed. Vertical 



fins confluent Xiphasiinje. 



Xiphasia. 

 ?II. Ventral fins under the pectoral." Vertical fins confluent, 



(Kaup) BROTtTLOPHis^;. 



Brotulophis. 



BROSMOPHYCINjE Gill. 



Synonymy. 

 Brosmophyeinse Gill, Proc. Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila., 1862. 



Brotuloids with a moderately elongated, scaly body, a more or less distinct 

 caudal fin, two closely-approximated ventral filaments, a continuous lateral 

 line, no barbels and (typically) two pyloric caeca. 



The typical genera are Brosmophycis, represented in the Californian waters, 

 and Dinematichthys of Bleeker, whose single species is found in the seas of the 

 East Indian Archipelago. The Lucifugae are, however, very closely related to 

 those genera, and the difference in the posterior parts is rather one of degree 

 than kind : they perhaps form a group of the subfamily. 



Genus BROSMOPHYCIS Gill.f 



Synonymy. 



Brosmophycis Gill, Proc. Academy of Natural Sciences of Phil., 1861, p. 168. 



Halias Ayres, Proc. Californian Academy of Natural Sciences, vol. ii. p. 52, 



1861. 

 Brosmius sp. Ayres, 1854. 

 Dinematichthys sp. Giinther, 1862. 



Body moderately elongated, thick and with the abdomen more or less di- 

 lated, in front of the anus and behind compressed, and uniformly tapering to 

 its truncated end. Anus rather behind the middle, with a scarcely raised 

 margin and unarmed ; second aperture behind and also little raised. 



Scales minute, scarcely imbricated and imbedded in the skin, which is lax, 

 and invests the dorsal and anal fins. 



Lateral line inconspicuous, slightly convex above the abdomen and rec- 

 tilinear behind. 



Head naked, moderate, oblong conical in profile, moderately compressed 

 and above nearly uniformly wide, with the snout longer than the eye, blunt 

 and subtruncated, with deep pits in and near the margin of the skin above 

 the maxillars. Eyes moderate, covered by the skin, situated nearly in the 

 middle of the anterior half of the head. Nostrils nearly equidistant from 

 the snout and eyes. Opercula covered by the skin ; the operculum with a 

 spine at its angle, terminating a bar on its inner surface, near the upper mar- 

 gin. Chin with two deep pits, one on each side. 



* Type. Brotula armaia T. Schlegel. 



f A second species of this genus was discovered at Cape Ft. Lucas by Mr. Xantus. Its height is 

 scarcely less than a sixth of the length. The head enters 4% times in the total; the jaw equals 

 half of the head's length ; the snout equals nearly a fifth of the same. The dorsal fin commences 

 with the second fourth of the length; the anal commences a third nearer the snout than the oppo- 

 site end: the pectoral equals about half the length of the head; and the ventral filament is only 

 about a fifth shorter than the head. The color is reddish-brown. The species may be named B. 

 ventralis. 



1863.] 



