202 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



Subfamily GEMPYLIN^^. 



ScombruliB with very elongate, compressed body, and elongate, spinous dorsal, which 

 is continuous with the second dorsal. Caudal not carinate. Pyloric cteca few. 

 In this subfamily is a .single genus and a single species. 



GEMPYLUS, CuviER and Valencienkes. 



Gempylus, CtiviER aud Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., viii, 207. 



Scombroidea with very elongate, slender, compressed body. Scales almost absent. Spi- 

 nous doi'sal very loug, with thirty or more spines, continuous with the second; six fin lets 

 above aud behiw. Ventrals minute, almost I'udimeutary. Caudal not keeled. Several 

 sti'ong teeth ia the jaws. Pyloric caeca not numerous. 



GEMPYLUS SERPENS, Cuvier aud Valenciennes. 



Scomber serpens, Solandek, MSS. 



Gempjihis srrpe)is, Cuv. aud Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., viii, 207 (xVntilles, from M. Pl^e).— Cuvier, Rfegne 

 Animal, 111., Poiss., PI. XLix, Fig 2.— GuNTfiER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., ii, 1800, 350; Challenger Report, 

 XXII, 1887, 41, and in Garrett's Fische. der Siidsee, Hamburg, 1873, i, 106, Taf. Lxviii, Fig. B. 



Gempylus coluber, Cuvier and Valenciennes, loe. cit., 211. (Otalti, coll. by Garnot and Lesson.) 



Lemnisoma thyrsitoides, Lesson, Voyage Coquille, Poiss., 160. 



GEMPYLUS SERPENS. 



A Gempylus with the ventrals reduced to a pair of very small spines. The height of the 

 body is contained from 15 to 17 times in its own length; the length of the head from .T to 

 5i times in the same distance. Hody scaleless. Coh)r uniform, the upper part of the dor- 

 sal tin black. 



Kadial formida: D. xxx-xxxi, 12-1.3, vi; A. iii, 12, vi. 



Pyloric ca-ca, 9-10. 



Gunther considers all known forms of this genus as belonging to a single species, includ- 

 ing G. coluber, C. & V., the Pacific form, which he has figured in his Fische fler Siidsee, pi. 

 LXVIII, fig. B. It has been rarely obtained at the Canary Islands, in the Caribbean Sea. 

 and near the Society and Sandwich Islands. It is generally believed to be an inhabitant of 

 great depths. 



Family LEPIDOPID^E. 



Lepidopodidir, GiLL, Standard Natural History, m, 1885, 206. 

 Lepidopida; Gill, MS. 



Scombroidea with elongate band-shaped bodies, a continuous or subcontinuous long 

 dorsal, a comparatively short anal, preceded by a considerable number of short detached 

 spines, no finlets, and a distinct forked caudal. Pectorals with some inferior rays longest. 

 Ventrals rudimentary or absent. A spine, or scute, or pair of scutes behind the vent. 

 Scales absent. Lateral line conspicuous, sinking rapidly anteriorly. Teeth lanceolate in 

 jaws, sometimes larger in front. No teeth in palatines. Air bladder present, (iill mem- 



