380 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



HYPSIRHYNCHUS HEPATICUS, Facciola. 



Hypftirhipichus hfjititirtis, Facciola^ Ioc. cit. 



This species was obtained at Messina by Dr. L. Faccii)la, aTid is also represented by a 

 Naples speeiinen in the Florence INlnsenm. It has not been I'lilly described, nor have we 

 seen even the partial description in the Natnralista SicUiano. 



STRINSIA, Rafinesque. (Figure n2fi.) 



Strinsia, Rafinesque, Indice d' Ittiologia Siciliann, 1880, 51. — GiNTHEU, Cat. Fi.sh. P>rit. Mus., IV, 1862, 344. 



This genns was bi'iefly characterized by Rafinesque in the following terms: 



"Gen. Striiisid. Due ale dorsali, una ala anale rinnita all' ala caudale." 



Giinther's fuller diagnosis would apjjcar to have been drawn from a study of the 

 descrijition and figure in the "IconogTafia" of Prince Bonaparte, who seems to have bad a 

 sight of Kafinesque's type. 



Strinsia is known only from this one specimen, careles.sly described, and probably care- 

 lessly preserved nearly a century ago. The careful work of later Italian and French ex- 

 plorers has not brought the form again to notice. Conservative and careful writers like 

 Giglioli, who has systematically reviewed all of Raflnesque's collecting fields about Sicily, 

 are beginning to omit it from their faunal lists. Something must be wrong. 



What, then, is /Strinsia, or rather, what was it? This is a (juestion which we shall not 

 attemiit to answer, except by a suggestion. May not Raflnesque's type have been a fish 

 belonging to some closely related genus, whoi^e tail hud been deformed or partially restored 

 after mutilations; or, indeed, may not Bonaparte's figure, as well as Uafinesque's diagnosis, 

 have been drawn from a badly preserved specimen, with the caudal rays and those of the 

 posterior parts of the dorsal and anal frayed out and imperfect! 



The tail of Bonaparte's figure does not look natural. The figiu'e, except for the tail, 

 answers very well to the description of Balargyreiis. 



The only sjiecies named under Strinsia is S. tinea, Rafinesque {oj>. cit., 12, 52). 



MELANONUS, Gunther. 

 Melanonus, Gunther, Ann. and M.ag. Nat. Hist., ii, 1878, 19.— Chal longer Report, xxii, l.'<87, 8,'?, Fig. (.V. 

 gracilis) jjl. xiv, fig. 13. 



This genus is represented by one species, obtained by the Challenger in the Antarctic 

 Ocean, at 1,975 fathoms, and thus characteiized: 





MELANONUS GUACILIS. 



Head and body rather compressed, covered with cyciloid scales of moderate size, and 

 terminating in a hmg, tapering tail. Eye of moderate size; mouth wide, anterior and lat- 

 eral; both Jaws with narrow bands of \iliiform teetli; vomer and palatines with veiy nar- 

 row bands of minute teeth. Barbel none. Dorsal fin with a short anterior and a i)osterior 

 division; tlic middle portion conmicnces immediately behind the anterior, and hast lie ante- 

 rior rays well developed; the jjosterior (livision is couMuent \\ ith tlie extreme caudal rays 

 and the posterior anal division. Anal like the dorsal, minus its anterior division. The 

 outer gill rakers of the first branchial arch strong and h)ng, longer than the gill laminse. 



