83 



(16) The ventrals are equal in length to the post-orbital portion of the 

 head: each consists of two stout filaments — the inner of which is slightly the 

 longer — bound together in their basal half. 



Colours in spirit : creamy yellow, clouded marbled and mottled like soap- 

 stone with shades of light brown ; a large oval ocellus, consisting of a black 

 centre and a creamy white ring, on the dorsal fin between the 20th and 30th 

 rays or beyond : anal jet black with a milk-white border. 



Length 7 inches. 



Bay of Bengal, 107, 128 and 145 to 250 fathoms. 



Regd. Nos. 13435, 13474, 13476, 13478—13482. 



63. Neobythites (Bassogigas) pterotus, Alcock. 



Neohythites pterotus, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Sept. 1890, p. 210 ; Oct. 1890, p. 297 ; July 1891, p. 30 : 

 Illustrations of the Zoology of the Investigator, fishes, pl. XI. fig. 4 (female), ani> pl. XXIX. fig. 1 (male). 



D. circ, 120. A. circ. 95. P. 18. V. 2. 



Differs from N. 'inacrops in the following particulars : — 



(1) Length of head about a sixth of the total : (2) greatest body height 

 equal to the length of the head. 



(3) Snout nearly twice as long as the eye and about three-fourths the width 

 of the interorbital space ; somewhat overlapping the upper jaw. 



(4) Major diameter of the eye about a seventh the length of the head. 



(5) Anterior nostril large, not subtubular though pierced in a circumscribed 

 patch of naked skin. 



(6) Upper jaw more than half the length of the head. 

 (8) No spinulea at the angle of the preoperculum. 



(12) Lateral line either absent, or present only quite near the head : (thirty 

 rows of scales between the base of the dorsal and the vent). 



(13) The longest dorsal rays are half the greatest body height. 



(14) The distance between the base of the pectoral and the first ray of the 

 anal fin is 1- times the length of the head. 



(15) Pectorals feathery : in the male they are 1- times the length of the 

 head, in the female they are as long as the head behind the anterior nostril. 



(16) Bach ventral consists of two rays which are separate from their base ; 

 the inner ray, which is the longer, is about two-fifths the length of the head. 

 In the male both rays have spathulate tips. 



(17) Pyloric caeca absent. 



Colours : body brown ; head, abdomen, and all the fins black. 



