174 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



branchiostegal arches, bearing, generally, .3 or more (most generally or 7) rays on eaeli 

 side; the lower jaw is composed of a dentary, and, behind, of an articnlar, angnlar, 

 and surangular; the scapular arch has an imdi\aded proscapula (to the inner side of which 

 are apposed at least a hypercoracoid and hypoeoracoid), and is connected with th(^ crauinm 

 by posterotemporal and post-temporal bones; the brain is differentiated, according to the 

 current nomenclature, into (1) a cerebral part, consisting of cerebral hemispheres and optic 

 lobes, and, in front, small, olfactory lobes; and (3) a cerebellar part, cerebellum, which is 

 moderately developed, covered, and simple. (Gill.) 



Family BERYCIDyE. 



Serycidw, Lowe, Proc. Zotil. Soc, London, 1839, 76; Hist. Fishes of Madeira, p. 48, 1843 (also p. viii).— GCn- 



THF.R, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., i, 1859, 8. 

 Berycidw, Gill, Arrangement, Families of Fishes, 1872, 10 (No. 161) (^Giintber's lieryciihf, genera v-ix, loc. 



cit., pp. 12-50).— Jordan & Gilbert, Bull. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 457. 

 Soloceiitroidei, Bleeker, Teutameu, 1859, xix (in part). 



Body oblong or ovate, compressed, with scales ctenoid, cycloid, foliate, or granular. 

 Head large and tliick, not exceedingly cavernous. Mouth wide, oblique. Eye lateral and 

 large. Maxillaries large, premaxillaries protractile; suborbitals narrow. Teeth villiform, 

 in one or more bands, sometimes with a few pairs of fangs, as in Caiilolepis. Opercular 

 bones usually spinous, and the other bones of the head usually strongly serrated. Branch- 

 iostegals vii-viii ; gill membranes separate, 3; gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; pseudo- 

 branchiie present; gill-rakers moderate. A single dorsal; anal with but few spinous rays; 

 ventral fins thoracic, with G or more soft rays; pyloric ca^ca numerous. 



This family is characteristically bathybial, few members being known to occur in shal- 

 low waters, and, indeed, with the exception of the family Jlolocentrida; the whole of the 

 superfamily Beri/coidea as proposed by Gill, inclnding the families Bcri/cidd' (except two 

 species oi Hcri/x), Trachichthyida', Stcphmwbcrycida; and Anomahpida; are found at very 

 considerable depths. 3£onocentrid(e, known from Chinese and Japanese seas, are probably 

 also inhabitants of the region below 100 fathoms. As Giinther has shown, this group are 

 found only in the sea, and are provided witli liigidy developed apparatus for the secre- 

 tion of superficial mucus, thus fitting them for living at a greater depth than any other 

 allied group. " They have," wrote Giinther, " a world-wide distribution in all tropical seas." 

 In this connection the geological history of this group is particularly significant. " Fossil 

 Berycoids," says Giinther, "show a still greater diversity of form than living; they belong 

 to the oldest Teleosteous fishes, the majority of Acanthopterygians found in the chalk being 

 representatives of this family. Bcry.v has been found in several species, with other genera 

 now extinct: Pseudoberyx, with abdominal ventrals, from Mount Lebanon; Beryco})iiis, with 

 cycloid scales; Romonotii.s, Sfenostoma, Sphowccphahis, Acaniis, Iloploptcryx, Platycormus, 

 with granular scales; Podocys, with a dorsal fin extending to the neck; Acrof/aster, Macro- 

 lepis, and Rhacolepis, from tlie chalk of Brazil. Species of Holocentrum and Myripristis 

 occur in the Monte Bolca formation." 



KEY TO THE SUBFAMILIES AND GENERA OF BERYCIDW. 



I. Scales ctenoid. Teeth villiform on jaws, palatines and vomer Berycinm 



A. Muzzle short ; chin projecting. 



1. Preoperculum spineless; ojiercular hones serrated. 



a. Anal spines, 4 ; ventral rays, 7 or more Bervx 



II. Scales cycloid ; teeth villiform on jaws, palate toothless; head large and thick; cleft of mouth wide, 



oblique, ventrals i, 10 Melamphaina: 



A. Teeth in hands. Scales large. 



1. Anal far behind dorsal. 



a. Anal with 2 spines and 6 rays; dorsal with (i spines; ventral with 7 rays. Teeth in single 

 rows Melami'Iiaes 



2. Anal origin under posterior end of dorsal. 



a. Eye moderate. Anal with 1 spine and 8 to 9 rays; dorsal with 3 spines; ventrals with 7 rays. 

 Toeth sometimes iu double rows Plectkomus 



