148 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



lip ; the anterior tubular, the posterior lobed. Vertical and pectoral fins well developed ; 

 caudal rays very short. Teeth in jaws on cardiform bands subequal in size. Vomer den- 

 tigerous. 



MYRUS PACHYRHYNCHUS (Vaiixant) Jordan and Davis. (Figure 167.) 



Jilyrus pachyrhynchus (Vaillant), Exp. Scient. Travailleur et Talisman, 1888, 11, pi. v, figs. 1, la, lb. 

 Echelus pachyrhynchus, Jordan and Davis, loo. cxt. 



A Myrus with a short, thick snout, elongate body, and with a comparatively elongate 

 pectoral (its length 2| in that of head). Origin of dorsal behind tip of pectoral. Length of 

 tail three-fifths of total length. Height aud thickness of body 33 in total length. Length 

 of snout one-third of total length of the head; diameter of eye and of interorbital space 

 equal to one-fifth of same. Lateral line distinct. Color gray; fins paler. Gill openings 

 black. 



Myrtis pachyrhynchus is the abyssal representative, not very remote in its affinities, of 

 Myrus myrus (L.), a well-known Mediterranean form and M. uropterus (Schlegel) from 

 Japan. It has been found oft' the Morocco coast, 1,050 to 1,435 meters, aud also at the Cape 

 Verdes in 460 fathoms. 



Family NETTASTOMID^E. 

 Nettaetomidw, Jordan and Davis, Rep. U. S. F. C, 1888 (1891), 649. 



This family, as understood by us, contains a few species of deep-sea eels closely allied 

 to the Murcenesocidce in technical characters, but more resembling the Nemichthyidos in 

 appearance, form of the head, and in dentition. The family, which is a provisional one, may 

 be thus defined. 



Enchelycephalous eels without pectoral fins, with the tongue not free, the posterior 

 nostrils remote from the Up, the gill openings small, separate, and subinferior, the vent 

 remote from the head, the tail ending in a slender tip <>r filament, the dorsal and anal tins 

 moderately developed, aud the jaws produced, slender, and straight, the upper the longer, 

 and both, as also the vomer, armed with hands of sharp, close-set, recurved, subequal teeth. 



Three genera are known, deep-sea fishes with fragile bodies and the thin skin charged 

 with black pigment. (Jordan and Darin.) 



KEY TO THE GENERA OF NETTASTOMID.E. 

 [After Jordan and Davis.] 



I. Dorsal fin low, beginning nearly above gill opening. 



A. Nostrils nearly superior, the posterior above and in front of eye, the anterior at tip of bony portion 



of snout; head with numerous mucous pores. 



1. Snout without a fleshy proboscis, the anterior nostrils mar its tip Nettastoma 



2. Snout, with a long, slender, fleshy tip or proboscis, at the base of which are the anterior nostrils 



Venefica. 



B. Nostrils lateral, the posterior slit-like and placed just in front of eye; snout without fleshy tip. 



C'hlopsis 

 NETTASTOMA, Rafinesque. 



Xtttastoma, Rafinesque, Caratteri Alcuni Nuovi Oeneri, etc., 1810, 66 (type, Nettastoma melanura, Raf.). — 



Gunther. Cat. Fish. Brit. Mns., vm. 48.— Jordan, Cat. Fish. N. Amer., 54, note. 

 Hyoprorus, KOlliker, Verhandlung Phys. Med. Gesellsch. Wiirzburg, iv, 1854, 101. 



Body scaleless, with tail tapering into a point. Snout much produced, depressed, 

 its anterior nostrils near its tip and nearly superior, the posterior above and in front of 

 eye. Jaws and vomer witli bands of cardiform teeth, those along the median line of the 

 vomer being somewhat the larger. Vertical fins well developed. Dorsal commencing 

 behind gill opening; pectorals absent. Air bladder present. Gill openings moderate. 

 (Jordan.) 



Nettastoma parviceps, a small-headed species, most resembling V. melanurum, from a 

 specimen LMiJ, inches long, dredged by the Challenger oft' Japan, in 345 fathoms. (Gunther, 

 Challenger Report, xxn, p. 253, pi. lxiii, fig. A.) 



