LYCODIN^. 



31 



but also for a considerable distance along tlie underside of the tail. The pectoral fin lias 23 rays and 

 is not indented at its posterior niaro^in. Pyloric appendages are wanting. 



The others are medium-sized or larger specimens, the most important measurements of which 

 are the following: 



Total lenjttli i 



Length of the head 



Distance between the snout and the anus 

 Height over the anus 



L.esniaykii ixora Mich. Sars 1902 



552 



120 



215 



66 



The length of the head is tlierefore 21-- 23,2 " „, the distance from tlie snout to tlie anus 

 37,5 39,9"/,,, the height over the anus lo— i3,8"/o of the total length. 



The colouration of the three mediiuu-sized individuals (371 — 383 mm.) can be derived from 

 that of the young individual referred to above. In the light vertical bands, whose number is 

 6 — 9, spots or stripes of the dark grotiud-colour have appeared, both on the dorsal fins and lower 

 down (Tab. Ill, fig. 2 b). The liglit neck-band is fully developed in one of these specimens and extends 

 from gill-cover to gill-cover, enclosing a dark stripe; in the second specimen the neck-band is restricted 

 to one, yet of good size, light spot on each side of the neck, enclosing a dark spot; in the third there 

 is only an ill-defined lighter part on the upper edge of the gill-cover. — In the large specimens the 

 light bands are still further resolved into festoon-shaped markings (Tab. Ill, fig. 2 c). 



The pectoral fuis have 23 rays in four specimens, 22 in the fifth; in none of them is there any 

 indentation of the posterior edge of the fin. In two of the specimens the dorsal fin has 115 rays, 

 the anal 97. 



The scah' covering has attained its full distribution , forwards as far as the neck and base of 

 the ventral fins, also on tlie unpaired fins to near their margin. 



After what has been said above, tlie lateral line presents the somewhat unusual, as it seems, 

 peculiarity tliat tlie mediolateral line is rather distinct in several of the specimens. 



The gut is lacking in pyloric appendages; in several specimens it was quite full of skeletal 

 remains of echinoderms (ophinroids). 



Relation of L. esmarku to L.vahiii. 



After Prof. Collett liad in his later treatises withdrawn his earlier expressed opinion that L. 

 esntarkii was the same species as the Greenland L. valilii Reiuh., Prof. F. A. Smitt and Dr. Einar 

 Lou n berg again took up the matter and declared themselves unable to separate the two forms from 

 one another. This is not remarkable in itself, since neither of these authors have had specimens of 

 L.vahiii at their disposal; their acquaintance with this fish was restricted to what they could read 

 of it in Liitken and Collett. And tlieir doubts concerning the independence of the two forms, might 

 be justified even more as some of the distinctions put forward b\- Collett are not constant. 



There is not the difference with regard to the length of the head, which Collett has mentioned, 

 namely that the head in L.esmarkii is on the whole somewhat longer than in I^.vahlii. L on n berg 



