178 



AULASTOHOMOEPHA, AlcOck. 

 Aulastomatomorpha, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1890, p. 307. 



Head naked. Body elongate, covered with minute hardly imbricate scales. 

 Anterior bones of the head produced into a long tube terminating in a narrow 

 mouth. Margin of the upper jaw formed equally by the premaxilla? and maxilla?. 

 Uniserial teeth, in the jaws only. Eye large. Gill-cover apparently complete. 

 Gill-opening wide below, contracted above, where it does not surpass the level 

 of the pectoral fin ; four gills with narrow lamina?. Pseudobranchia? almost 

 rudimentary. Dorsal fin short, quite in the posterior part of the body. Pecto- 

 rals and ventrals well developed. Anal fin very long. Caudal forked. Pyloric 

 caeca few, small. 



142. Aulastomomorpha phosphorops, Alcock. 



Aulastomatomorpha phosphorops, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Oct. 1890, p. 307: Illustrations of the 

 Zoology of the Investigator, Fishes, Plate V. Fig. 2. 



B. 5? D. 21. A. 41. P. 7. V. 6. 



Body elongate and compressed, surrounded from the mid-dorsal line behind 

 the nape to the mid-ventral line behind the vent by a continuous thick succulent 

 fold of the integuments, like, but not so wide as, that of Platytroctes ; its greatest 

 height, including this fold, is a little more than ^ of the total without the caudal. 

 Head completely covered with a thick, spongy, dazzling white, probably lumin- 

 ous, skin. 



Head low and rather depressed, its length 3g in the total without the 

 caudal ; produced anteriorly into a long tubular snout, at the end of which is 

 the small mouth. 



The snout is a little less than half the length of the head, or 6"- in the total 

 without the caudal. 



The eyes are very large and extremely prominent ; the major diameter of 

 the eye-ball is slightly over - the head-length, but owing to the encroachment 

 up to the margin of the cornea of the broad posterior orbital fold, the diameter 

 of the exposed " eye " is only a little more than i of the same standard ; the true 

 (bony) interorbital space is less than half the diameter of the eye in width. 



Nostrils situated high up, above the anterior orbital angle. Mouth at the 

 extreme end of the tubular snout, small, the jaws apparently with limited 

 motion. The upper jaw, which projects slightly beyond the lower, is formed in 

 its anterior half by the premaxilla, in its posterior half by the maxilla. Minute, 

 acute, recurved teeth in a single row in the premaxilla? and mandible ; no teeth 

 in the maxilla?. 



