344 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



BELLOTTIA APODA, Giglioli. 



Belloitia apoda, Giglioli, Zoologisclier Anzeiger, vi, 399. 



The vent equidistant from the tip of the snout and root of the tail. Dorsal origin in 

 the vertical from the middle of the pectorals, confluent with the caudal and the anal. Pec- 

 torals normal and small. Body covered with mucous pores particularly conspicuous upon 

 the head. Anal papilla sometimes present. Lateral line simple, slightly arched over the 

 pectorals, straight and median posteriorly. Two cutaneous folds parallel to the base of 

 the dorsal. The central rays of the caudal are the longest. 



Radial formula (estimated): D. 90; A. 75; 0. 12. 



Color, olive gray, with minute dots of black; lins black at the base, colorless and 

 transparent elsewhere. 



The two types measure 28 to 30 millimeters. Five specimens of this form were taken 

 in the net in the Gulf of Naples in December, 1882, at the depth of 30 meters. Two of 

 them (the types of this description) are in the Italian collection of the Royal Zoological 

 Museum at Florence; two more in the Museo Civico at Milan; the fifth in the Zoological 

 Station in Naples. 



Although not yet found at considerable depths, its affinities, in the opinion of Giglioli 

 and Viuciguerra, appear to be with the family B rot ul id a, and the genus is admitted to this 

 work not only for the purpose of comparison, but in the belief that it will eventually be 

 found in deep water. 



HEPHTHOCARA, Alcock. (Figure 301.) 

 Bephthocara, Alcock, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., 1892, 349. (Type, B. simian, loc. cit., pi. xvm, fig. 1.) 



Head large, with thin, smooth, uncrested bones, scaleless. No armature but a weak 

 opercular spine. Body compressed, tapering, covered with deciduous cycloid scales. Eye 

 moderate. Snout not overhanging the jaws. Mouth with obliquely ascending cleft, and 

 with the lower jaw prominent. Yilliform teeth in the jaws, palatines, and vomer. No 

 barbel orhyoid filaments. Gill-openings wide; gill-membranes separate, 4 gills; no pseudo 

 branchiae; 8 branchiostegals. Lateral line indistinguishable. Vertical tins confluent; 

 pectoral fins entire; no ventral fins. 



The type, //. si mn hi, was described from an immature specimen, 8 inches long, taken 

 by the Investigator off the Coromandel coast, in 902 fathoms. 



LAMPROGRAMMUS, Alcock. (Figure 302.) 

 Lamprogrammxis, Alcock, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vin, 1891, 32. 



Head large, body compressed, both entirely covered with thin, smooth, deciduous 

 scales of moderate size. Head bones with prominent crest and wide, muciferous cavities, 

 unarmed except for a weak opercular spine. Snout not overhanging the jaws. Eye of 

 moderate size. Mouth large; teeth in villiform bands in the jaws, palatines, and vomer. 

 No barbel or hyoid filaments. Gill-opening wide; gill membranes separate; 4 gills, 8 

 branchiostegals, no pseudobranchiae. Lateral line very conspicuous, with much enlarged 

 scales, each of which bears a glandular (luminous) organ. Vertical fins confluent; pectoral 

 fins entire; no ventral fins. {Alcock.) 



This genus is represented by the single species, Lamprogrammus niger, Alcock (loc. cit, 

 fig. 2), described from two specimens, 11| and 15 inches in length, obtained by the Investi- 

 gator in the Andaman Sea, at a depth of 5G1 fathoms, and another from 404 fathoms in 

 the same region. Alcock says of it: "This extraordinary form seems almost entitled to 

 rank by itself in a separate subfamily of the Ophidiidas. In general appearance and in 

 most of its structural details it has the closest resemblance to the typical lirotidituv; but 

 it differs from them all in its remarkable Halosaurus like lateral line and in the entire 

 absence of ventral fins." 



