FISHES OP THE GULF OF MAINE 



313 



117. Black-bellied rosefish (Helicolenus maderensis Goode and Bean) 



Jordan and Evermann, 189&-1900, p. 1837. 



Description. — This species resembles the common rosefish so closely in its 

 general form and in the outline and arrangement of its fins that it would be apt 

 to be mistaken for the latter were it not that the lower eight rays of the pectoral 

 fins are free from the membrane for the outer one-half to one-third of their length, 

 giving the fin an aspect very different from that of the rosefish. Furthermore, 

 there are only 12 spines in the spiny portion of its dorsal fin instead of 14 to 15, as 

 is the case in the rosefish, and only 5 soft anal rays (in addition to 3 stiff spines) 

 instead of 7, while its caudal fin is relatively larger than that of the rosefish. A 

 more important difference anatomically is that the present species has only 24 ver- 

 tebra?, whereas the rosefish has 31. 



Fig. 148. — Black-bellied rosefish {Helicolenus maderensis) . After Lowe 



Color. — Described (we have not seen it) as pale to brilliant scarlet or flesh 

 color, the gill cover with a vague leaden or dusky patch and the back and upper 

 sides with five irregular cross bands of darker or brighter scarlet. All the fins are 

 scarlet, the spiny part of the dorsal mottled with white, and the soft portion of the 

 dorsal, the ventrals, and the anal edged with white. The lining of the belly is 

 intense black, whence we have coined the English name "black-bellied rosefish." 



Size. — About 15 inches in length. 



General range. — This fish was first described from Madeira, but it has since 

 been found at many localities off southern New England, off New York, and thence 

 southward to Florida, in depths of 71 to 373 fathoms. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — This species is included here on the strength 

 of three records — off Nantucket in 93 fathom , 208 fathoms, and 264 fathoms, 

 respectively 74 — but since this is apparently near its northern limit on the American 

 coast it is not likely that it ever enters further into the Gulf of Maine except as 

 a stray. 



" The precise localities are 40° N., f 

 all the American records. 



1 19' W.; 39° 51' N., 09° 51' W.; and 39° 56' N., 69° 22' W. Ooode and Bean (1S96) list 



