164 



A New Cottoid Fish from Bering Sea. 



mouth of moderate size, jaws about equal, maxillary extending to vertical 

 from anterior margin of pupil, mandible broadly U-shaped with diverging 

 rami ; a rather broad band of villiform teeth in each jaw, and a patch of 

 similar teeth on vomer ; upper angle of gill-cover rounded and projecting 

 across the lateral line ; the three preopercular spines enclosing a small 

 triangular space, the two posterior spines directed backward, the anterior 

 outward; gill-rakers short; gill-membranes narrowly joined to isthmus; 

 a continuous series of conspicuous lateral pores beginning under the first 

 dorsal spine and extending on caudal fin ; dorsal rays X -j- 14, the two 

 parts united by a membrane whose height equals half diameter of eye; 

 anterior dorsal rather high, its length about equal to eye and snout, the 

 spines encased in a smooth dermal sheath from which their tips project ; 





Fig. i.— T/iecupterus aleulicus Smith, new genus and species, 

 soft dorsal longer and higher than spinous, the anterior rays more or less 

 concealed by skin ; anal fin with 1 1 rays, immediately under the soft dorsal 

 and similar to it ; caudal rounded, about half length of head ; pectorals 

 large, rounded, of 20 rays, extending beyond origin of anal ; ventrals very 

 short, the rays I, 2* ; anal opening considerably nearer to base of tail than 

 to end of snout. 



Color. — Entire body minutely speckled with black ; a broad black band 

 across body between soft dorsal and anal fins, another black band behind 

 axil of pectoral ; several small dark areas on head, body, and fins. 



Type specimen 40 millimetres long, from Albatross station 3785, in 

 Bering Sea 150 miles north of the Rat Islands, at a depth of 270 fathoms. 



♦ Owing to the recent mislaying of the specimen, it is impossible to verify this rather 

 abnormal formula for the ventral rays as determined independently by the author and 

 the artist. 



