33o DISCOVERY REPORTS 



interneural, median, ossified body connected with the first vertebra is also shown. Parr (1929) has 

 already described and figured this ossification, but it may be added that the median dorsal ligament, 

 which runs down the trunk, is attached to its posterior end. In the Paralepididae, I have found inter- 

 muscular bones in Paralepis speciosa, P. brevis, P. brevirostris and P. coregonoides, but none were found 

 in Notolepis coatsi, N. rissoi kroyeri, Lestidiwn sphyraenoides and Sudis hyalina. 



Lastly, X-ray photographs of Scopelarclms cavei sp.n., S. guentheri, Neoscopelarchoides dubius sp.n., 

 N. elongatus and Evermannella balbo have not revealed the presence of intermuscular bones. (These 

 show up quite clearly in X-ray photographs of paralepidids, Anotopterus and Alepisaurus.) 



Text-fig. 9. a, transverse section through the trunk muscles of Anotopterus pharao, showing the intermuscular bones (imb.) 

 ( x 9'3); b, some of the larger intermuscular bones associated with the first three vertebrae of Omosudis lowei (x io-6) 

 d.l. = dorsal ligament. 



Distensibility of stomach and body-zuall 



Evermannella, Omosudis, Anotopterus and Alepisaurus are among the alepisauroids capable of 

 swallowing very large prey. Alcock (1899) has a drawing of Evermannella atrata very much distended 

 with a large squid, while in the Discovery Collections there is a specimen of E. indica with a gono- 

 stomatid fish folded up in its stomach, the length of the prey being appreciably longer than the length 

 of the predator's abdomen. The capacity of Omosudis for swallowing large prey is well known since 

 Gunther's (1887) account of a Sternoptyx in the stomach of one individual, victim and predator being 

 equal in bulk. Anotopterus also has a highly distensible stomach and body-wall, as the presence of two 

 large Notolepis coatsi in the specimen described earlier (p. 321) must indicate. Alepisaurus is a highly 

 voracious fish with a comparable capacity for dealing with large prey : in the collections of the Natural 

 History Museum there is an A. ferox considerably distended, having swallowed one of its own kind. 



There is no record of a scopelarchid or a paralepidid containing large prey (although I have seen 

 many Notolepis coatsi, each somewhat distended by a stomach crammed with Euphausia superba) and 

 it is interesting that of all the families of alepisauroid fishes, the scopelarchids and paralepidids are the 

 only ones containing species which are fully scaled. Most probably all the scopelarchids are fully 

 scaled, while among the paralepidids this condition obtains in Magnisudis, Paralepis and Notolepis 

 only (Harry, 1953 a, b). 



