180 



Dorsal and anal fins equal and opposite, of moderate length, placed far back 

 in the posterior half of the body. Caudal forked. Pectorals and ventrals well 

 developed, but rather small. 



Pyloric casca present. 



Distribution : European and African side of the Atlantic ; Arabian Sea, Bay 

 of Bengal, Andaman Sea ; Japanese Seas. 



Key to the Indian species of Xenodermichthys. 



I. The lateral line is indistinct ... ... ... ... X, Giintheri. 



II. The lateral line is a salient tube supported by regularly arranged 



subcutaneous scales ... ... ... ... ... X. squamilaterus. 



143. Xenodermichthys Guntheri, Alcock. 



Xenodermichthys Giintheri, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1892, p. 359, pi. xviii. fig. 3 : Illustrations of 

 the Zoology op the Investigator, Fishes, pl. XXXII. fig. 2. 



B. 6. D. 15. A. 14. V. 6. P. 5? 



Body elongate, compressed, covered with a thick, scaleless, longitudinally - 

 wrinkled, black skin, in which scattered granular yellowish-coloured nodules are 

 imbedded. The dorsal and anal profiles are symmetrically similar in life. The 

 length of the head is slightly over two-sevenths, and the height of the body 

 immediately behind the gill-opening about one-sixth of the total without the 

 caudal. 



The obtuse snout, surmounted by an acutely-pointed tubercle which projects 

 from the prominent symphysis of the lower jaw, is not quite equal in length to 

 the diameter of the circular eye. The eyes, which in life encroach upon the 

 dorsal profile, are about two-sevenths of the length of the head, and are about 

 two-thirds of a diameter apart. 



The mouth-cleft is oblique, and the jaws are even in front, except for the 

 symphysial tubercle on the mandible. The premaxillse, which form on each side 

 nearly one half the extent of the margin of the upper jaw, are armed with a row 

 of minute close-set teeth, as are also the maxilla? (which have the typical 

 Alepocephaloid structure and reach to the vertical through the posterior border 

 of the orbit) and the broad boat-shaped mandible ; no teeth on the palatines or 

 vomer. 



The gill-cleft is extremely wide, extending forwards almost to the mandibu- 

 lar symphysis and upwards almost to the post-temporal region; the opercle 

 appears to be perfect, and, together with the branchiostegal rays, is enveloped 

 in a thick membranous skin, as in Alepocephalus ; four gills, with numerous long 

 close-set gill-rakers on the first arch ; pseudobranchise present. 



No lateral line can be distinguished in life. 



