380 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



HYPSIKHYNCHUS HEPATICUS, Facciola. 



Hypsirhynclme hepaticus, Facciola, loc. cit. 



This species was obtained at Messina by Dr. L. Facciola, and is also represented by a 

 Naples specimen in the Florence Museum. It has not been fully described, nor have we 

 seen even the partial description in the Naturalista Siciliano. 



STRINSIA, Rafinesque. (Figure 32G.) 



Strinsia, Rafinesque, Indice d' Ittiologia Siciliana, 1880, 51. — Gi'NTHEK, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., iv, 1862, 344. 



This genus was briefly characterized by Rafinesque in the following terms : 



"Gen. Strinsia. Due ale dorsali, una ala anale riunita all' ala caudale." 



Giinther's fuller diagnosis would appear to have been drawn from a study of the 

 description and figure in the "Iconografia" of Prince Bonaparte, who seems to have had a 

 sight of Rafinesque's type. 



Strinsia is known only from this one specimen, carelessly described, and probably care- 

 lessly preserved nearly a century ago. The careful work of later Italian and French ex- 

 plorers has not brought the form again to notice. Conservative, and careful writers like 

 Giglioli, who has systematically reviewed all of Rafinesque's collecting fields about Sicily, 

 are beginning to omit it from their fauna! lists. Something must be wrong. 



What, then, is Strinsia, or rather, what was it? This is a question which we shall not 

 attempt to answer, except by a suggestion. May not Rafinesque's type have been a fish 

 belonging to some closely related genus, whose tail had been deformed or partially restored 

 after mutilations; or, indeed, may not Bonaparte's figure, as well as Rafinesque's diagnosis, 

 have been drawn from a badly preserved specimen, with the caudal rays and those of the 

 posterior parts of the dorsal and anal frayed out and imperfect? 



The tail of Bonaparte's figure does not look natural. The figure, except for the tail, 

 answers very well to the description of Ralargyreus. 



The only species named under Strinsia is S. tinea, Rafinesque (op. cit., 12, 52). 



MELANONUS, GLinther. 

 Melanormi, CCntiier, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., II, 1878, 19.— Challenger Report, xxn, 1887, 83, Fig. (M. 

 gracilis) pi. xiv, fig. 13. 



This genus is represented by one species, obtained by the Challenger in the Antarctic 

 Ocean, at 1,975 fathoms, and thus characterized: 



*S555S** 





MELANONUS GRACILIS. 



Head and body rather compressed, covered with cycloid scales of moderate size, and 

 terminating in a long, tapering tail. Eye of moderate size; mouth wide, anterior and lat- 

 eral; both jaws with narrow bands of villiform teeth; vomer and palatines with very nar- 

 row bands of minute teeth. Barbel none. Dorsal fin with a short anterior and a posterior 

 division; the middle portion commences immediately behind the anterior, and has the ante- 

 rior rays well developed; the posterior division is confluent with the extreme caudal rays 

 and the posterior anal division. Anal like the dorsal, minus its anterior division. The 

 outer gill rakers of the first branchial arch strong and long, longer than the gill lamina. 



