FISHES FROM BERING SEA AND KAMCHATKA. 8 1 



Color in life: Rose-red, lighter on belly and under side of head; skin everywhere dusted with 

 fine dark points; gill cavity, abdomen, and pectorals dusky; posterior part of the body, dorsal, anal, 

 and the caudal black. 



This species differs from C. cypselunis in the length of body, size of eye, ventral disk, and gill 

 opening, and in the much shallower caudal fork. 



A second specimen, the cotype, was taken at station 4781. 



ELASSODISCUS, new genus (Cyclogasteridae). 



Closely allied to Careproctus but differing in the greatly reduced and imperfect condition of the 

 ventral disk, in which character it represents a further step toward the total loss of the ventral fins. 

 Teeth tricuspid, in oblique series. Pseudobranchiae absent. Branchiostegals 6. Pectoral fm notched. 

 Nostril single. Ventral disk rudimentary, the rays absent, the disk represented by a very small 

 semicircular fold of skin hidden within a pit, one end of the fold protruding papilla-like from the pit; 

 the fold is free from the pelvic girdle but connected with it by strands of connective tissue; pelvic 

 girdle wholly concealed, consisting of two vertical cartilaginous plates. Gills 3,' 2, no slit behind fourth 

 arch, the other slits contracted, with only a portion of the horizontal limb free. r>>'loric caeca short, 

 in a single series, 12 in number. Vertebra 75. 



Type Elassodiscus tremebundus, new species. 



Fig. 36. — Elassodiscus tremebundus, new species. Type. 



Elassodiscus tremebundus, new species. (Fig. 26.) 



Type 215 mm. long, from station 4797, off Avatcha Bay, Kamchatka; depth 682 fathoms. 



Head 23 hundredtlis of length without caudal ; depth 26; eye 3.7; interocular space 11; width of 

 head 16.5; depth of head at occiput 21; snout 7; gill opening 7; distance from ventral pit to tip of 

 mandible 10; to vent 4; to front of anal 18. Dorsal 63 to 65; anal 58 to 60; pectoral 32 to 34; fins 

 coimted in dissected cotypes. 



Body compressed, deep. Head wide and deep; occiput swollen; interorbital space flat and broad; 

 snout short and deep, slightly projecting; mouth broad, the width between angles more than half 

 head; maxillary extending to vertical from posterior margin of eye, 2>^ in head; teeth strong, broad, 

 and triangular, evidently but weakly trilobed, arranged in about 10 or 11 oblique scries in the half 

 of each jaw; nostril single, in a prominent tube in front of eye; pupil large, round. Gill slit extending 

 down to the upper pectoral ray. 



Origin of dorsal over base of pectoral; origin of anal under eighth dorsal ray; anteriorly the dorsal 

 and anal fins are enveloped in a thick gelatinous tissue; both are high, the longest ray in each fin 

 equal to distance from tip of lower jaw to vent, 1.66 in head; dorsal and anal joined to caudal for 0.25 

 its length. Caudal broad, truncate, sometimes slightly concave, of 8 rays. Upper ray of pectoral on 

 a level with the lower edge of eye, notched, the upper lobe composed of 27 rays, reaching slightly 

 past front of anal, 1.5 in head; lower lobe of 5 rays, reaching a short distance past vent. Ventral disk 

 as described for the genus. 



