LYCODIN/E. 



8l 



the mouth of Chatanga Bay (75" N.L. 113° 30' E.L.), where the depth was 15 fathoms and the bottom- 

 temperature — 0,8° C. 



Tlie specimens of the Dijmphna Expedition were taken in the Kara Sea at a depth of 46—100 

 fathoms. I give below the proportions of 11 specimens chosen according to size: 



Total length 



Length of the head . . . 



Distance from snout to anus 

 Height over the anus 



186 



41 

 90 

 16 



In the 185 mm. long female tlie eggs are of a considerable size, namel\- 4,5 mm. in diameter; 

 the date of the catcli is not forthcoming. 



Comparison with allied forms. 



A scaleless Iy>codes has not been known hitherto from the European-Greenland coasts. From 

 Arctic North America however, 2 species were known, whicli are described as perfecth- naked, and set 

 up by Kleeker therefore as a sejDarate genus: Lycodalepis, namely L. tumerii Bean (Ala.ska, Bering 

 Straits) and L. nmcosits Richardson (Northumberland Sound, Cmnberland Gulf). The scaleless Lvcodes 

 from the Kara Sea presents great similarity' to L. turverii amongst these, the latter's proportions 

 according to Bean') being as follows: 



Total length 330 mm. 



Length of the head in "/o of the total length 23 



Longitudinal diameter of the eye — — 2,5 



Distance of the anal fin from the snout — — 51 



But L. tumeni has 18 rays in the jDectorals, 85 in the dorsal fin, and 67 in the anal; and these 

 data can scarcel}- be regarded as resting on wrong counting, .since Sco field') in a second specimen 

 has found: P. 18, D. 86, A. 67. Nor does the colouration agree, so far as I can discern from the figure 

 which Jordan & P'vermann') have given of Bean's type-.specimen. 



Until fm-ther information is forthcoming, I must therefore consider the scaleless L>codes from 

 the Kara Sea and Chatanga Ba>- a separate species. The Ettropean L>code.s-fauna is thus enriched b\- 

 an interesting form which has hitherto been mistmderstood. I cannot find however, an\' sufficient ground 

 for adopting the genus-name Lycodalepis proposed b\' Bleeker, since we know forms which, in their 

 weak development of the scaly covering (e. g. L. seimmidiis\ present transitions between entirely naked 

 and perfecth' scaled species; and other characters do not exist which might be the basis for a generic 

 separation of the naked species, .so far as I can see (cf. for the rest p. 5, with remarks on the likewise 

 scaleless L. platyrlnnus mihi). 



') Proc. U. vS. Nat. Mus. 1S78, p. 463. 



2) List of fishes obtained in the \vaters of Arctic Alaska. The Fur Seals and I-'ur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific 

 Ocean, Part IIL 1899, p. 505. 



3) Fishes of North and Middle America, IV, PI. 350, Fig. 858. Bull. U. ,S. Nat. Mus. 1900. 



The Injjolf-Expedition. 11. 4. II 



