FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



147 



irregular flecks and dots along the back and on 

 the gill covers. 42 



General range.- — This is an oceanic fish, very- 

 abundant in temperate latitudes in the Atlantic 

 where it lives pelagic from about 100 fathoms 

 down to 250 fathoms; hundreds have often been 

 taken in a single haul. It is also known from the 

 Pacific. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Cyclothone 

 appears within our limits only as a stray from the 

 Atlantic Basin; one 23 mm. long that we took in 

 a haul from 30 fathoms on Browns Bank, June 24, 

 1915, and a second mutilated specimen probably 

 of this species from the Fundy Deep (haul from 

 90 fathoms), March 22, 1920, are the only definite 

 records of it within our limits. 



Stomias Stomias ferox Reinhardt 1842 

 Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 588. 



Description. — The members of this genus (there 

 are several), resemble the viperfish in their bull- 

 dog-shaped heads, with large mouth and long, 

 fanglike teeth. But they do not have an adipose 

 fin; the dorsal fin and the anal fin both stand far 

 rearward close to the tail fin; the dorsal fin is even 

 with the anal fin; and the first dorsal fin ray is 

 not prolonged as it is in the viperfish. The chin 

 bears a fleshy barbel nearly as long as the head 

 and ending in a group of about three simple fila- 

 ments. The sides of the body are clothed with 

 about 6 rows of large, thin, somewhat irregular, 

 hexagonal scales, and there is one row of lumines- 

 cent spots low down along each side and two rows 

 along the belly; also one small, circular light organ 

 below each eye. 



The tip of the lower jaw overlaps and encloses 

 the tip of the upper jaw when the mouth is closed 

 in the only member of the genus that has been 

 reported from the Gulf of Maine (or is likely to 

 be found there) ; the slender body is about 17 times 



18 For detailed accounts and colored Illustrations see Oarman (Mem. Mus. 

 Comp. Zool., vol. 24, 1899, p. 24R, pi. J, fig. 3), Brauer (Wissensch. Ergeb. 

 Deutschen Tlefsee-Eiped. (1898-1899), 1906, vol. 15, Pt. 1, p. 77. pi. 6, fig. 6), 

 Murray and HJort (Depths of the Ocean, 1912, pi. I). 



as long as it is high; the ventral fins are only about 

 as long as the head; the dorsal fin is of about the 

 same size and shape as the anal fin, over which 

 it stands; and there are about 85-86 light organs 

 in each of the ventral rows, about 60 light organs 

 in each of the lateral rows. 



Color. — Black below as well as above, the sides 

 with metallic iridescence. 



General range and occurrence in the Gulf of 

 Maine. — This oceanic fish is so widespread in the 

 northern North Atlantic that it was taken at 

 almost all the stations that the Michael Sars 

 occupied there in 1910, 43 mostly between the 75 

 to 80 fathom level and the 410 fathom (750 meter) 

 level, most plentifully at about 275 fathoms (500 

 meters). The early cruises of the Blake and 

 Albatross I took it at many localities also, along 

 the continental slope of North America between 

 the southeastern slope of the Newfoundland 

 Banks and the Bahama Channel. 44 Our only 

 reason for mentioning it is that one specimen 

 about 12 inches long (tip of snout to base of tail 

 fin) was taken by a trawler on the northeastern 

 part of Georges Bank (lat. 42°10' N., long. 67°05' 

 W.), at about 100 fathoms, on January 20, 1936. 4 ' 



Stomioides nicholsi Parr 1933 



Parr, Copeia, 1933, No. 4, p. 177. 



Description. — The chief anatomical character 

 separating Stomioides from Stomias is the struc- 

 ture of the chin barbel. In Stomias this terminates 

 in three simple filaments. But in Stomioides it not 

 only has these barbels, but the main trunk is 

 swollen at the tip and has two additional filaments 

 on one side a little inward from its tip. Another 

 difference is that the point of origin of the anal fin 

 is in advance of the origin of the dorsal fin by a 

 distance about as great as the diameter of the eye 

 in Stomioides, whereas the point of origin of the 

 anal fin is about even with that of the dorsal in 



<i Murray and HJort, Depths of the Ocean, 1912, pp. 603, 611, 629. 

 « For a list of these stations, see Ooode and Bean, Smithsonian Contrlb. 

 Knowl., vol. 30, 1895, p. 107. 

 « This specimen Is now In the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 



Figure 65. — Stomias (Stomias ferox), Banquereau Bank. From Goode and Bean. Drawing by H. L. Todd. 



