24 LYCODIN^. 



has but recently appeared, it is evident that Prof. Smitt has not changed his standpoint in this regard. 

 — If one but reflects that L. frigidus is exceedingly common in nature — both the North-Atlantic 

 and Ingolf Expedition have taken it more frequently and in much greater numbers than any other 

 Lycodes — and that it has quite a different area of distribution from L. vahlii or L. reticiilatns^ which 

 are both (as shown in the present work) restricted to relatively small depths, whilst L. frigidus is 

 confined to the deeper and deepest part of the cold area*, this supposition of Prof. Smitt that L. 

 frigidus is a nimiber of sterile and Inbrid (?) individuals of the two named species, strikes one at 

 once as unnatural. I can also assert that the specimens in my hands give no indications whatsoever 

 of being sterile; both the male and female sexual organs are well-developed, though not fully ripe, 

 since the specimens have obviously not been taken during the spawning-period. In the largest male 

 from the Ingolf Expedition the testes are 65 mm. long and 10 mm. broad, without free folds and of 

 equal length (Collett mentions that in a 510 mm. long male the left testis was rudimentary); the eggs 

 in the largest female are 1,5 mm. in diameter in the sack-shaped, ca. 55 mm. long, ovary '). 



Again, Dr. E. Lonnberg (1. c.) is inclined to regard L. frigidus and L. pallidus as colour- 

 varieties of one and the same species 2). If this author had had specimens of L. pallidus for comiDarison, 

 he would certainly not have adopted this view. L. frigidus is distinguished in a moment, so to speak, 

 from L. pallidus — and indeed from all other scaled (European and Greenland) Lycodes species — 

 by its extremely small scales. So small are the scales in L. frigidus that there are ca. 48 scales in a 

 vertical line from the anus to the base of the dorsal fin in a specimen of 226 mm., whilst in a specimen 

 of L. pallidus (var. squamiveuter), 230 mm. long, there are only 27 scales on the same line. 



In his latest treatise on the genus Lycodes, F. A. Smitt (I.e. 1901) has so far changed his view 

 that he now brings under L. reticulatus a singular '.'.ioxra?^ frigidaf> ; during my visit to the Stock- 

 holm Riks-Museum I discovered that under this denomination were placed: i specimen of L. perspi- 

 cillum Kroyer (=Z. r^^/«^/rt/«j Reinh. juv.?) (No. i), 8 specimens of L. pallidus Coll. (No. 2— 9) and 3 

 specimens of the veritable L. frigidjis Coll. (No. 10 — 12). 



Distribution. 

 The Ingolf Expedition has taken L. frigidus at the following stations which all lie north, 

 north-east and east of Iceland and south of Jan Mayen3): 



St. 



') After this was written, I have observed a female L. frigidus with fully ripe eggs. The specimen was ca. 500mm. 

 long, with an enormous ovary, 84 mm. long, 47 mm. broad, which contained 500 eggs, almost ready to be spawned, of a 

 diameter of 7 mm. It was taken on the 29th of August 1902, north from the Faroes (63° 13' N.L., 6° 32' W.L., depth 975 fathoms, 

 temperature of the bottom — 0,51° C.) by the fisheries steamer (Michael Sars». 



2) Liitken has also suggested that L. pallidus was a (subspecies or form-> of L. frigidus. Vidensk. Medd. Naturhist. 

 Foren. Kbhvn., 1880, p. 317. 



3) 2 other specimens were brought home in addition to these 63, but the number of the station was lost later. 



