SCOPELARCHIDAE 



3°9 



Neoscopelarchoides dubius sp.n. 

 (Text-fig. 2 and PI. XIX, figs. 3, 4.) 



Holotype. A female, 138 mm. in standard length, taken in a 450 cm. closing net hauled obliquely 

 between 1800 and 1150 m., at station 1759: 31 54-5' S, 51 27-9' E., Indian Ocean: about 500 miles 

 south-east of Madagascar. 



Body proportions in hundredths of the standard length (138 mm.). Greatest depth of body 17-5; 

 length of head 22-8 ; horizontal diameter of eye 5-8 ; length of snout 8-7 ; width of bony interorbital 0-7 ; 

 length of lower jaw 20-3 ; length of maxilla 15-2; length from tip of snout to origin of dorsal fin 38-4; 

 snout to adipose dorsal fin 81-2; snout to pectoral fin 25-5; snout to pelvic fin 40-9; snout to anal fin 

 61-5; length of pectoral fin 21-0; length of pelvic fin 29-0; length of caudal peduncle 11-2; depth of 

 caudal peduncle 6-2. Anus situated a little in front of the origin of the anal fin. Trunk not much 

 deeper than wide at mid-point of body. 



Fin-rays. D. 9, A. 21, Pect. 27, Pv. 9. 



oxoxomoococcoxcoxo^^ 



* 



V] ^^? — ^^T" 



^LL^ n 4^A { ff ]r ^ 1 ^ 





Text-fig. 2. Neoscopelarchoides dubius. Holotype ( x 1) : a, palatine teeth ( x 2-5) ; b, mandibular teeth ( x 2-5) ; 



c, lingual teeth ( x 2-5) ; d, lateral line scale ( x 6). 



Scaling. Rather small, thin cycloid scales on cheeks and gill covers and over the body, extending a 

 short way in a B-shaped area over the bases of the principal caudal rays. Scales of lateral line much 

 enlarged. Scales along lateral line 59. Transverse rows of scales between origin of dorsal fin and 

 lateral line 8; between origin of anal fin and lateral line 10-11. 



Vertebrae. 57. 



Dentition. Premaxilla with about 80 small, pointed, retrorse teeth. Dentary with about thirty 

 outer, smaller pointed teeth and nine inner, long, barbed, depressible teeth, the second and third 

 being the largest. Left palatine with three large, barbed, depressible teeth, these being set somewhat 

 inward from a row of eight small, pointed teeth. Lingual teeth fourteen, moderately compressed, the 

 first the largest, the remainder gradually decreasing in size. 



Gill-teeth. The first gill arch bears a series of closely set, small, pointed gill-teeth. 



Colour (in spirit). Dark brown above the lateral line, medium brown below, except where the black 

 peritoneum of the body cavity shows through the abdominal walls. The fins are more or less hyaline, 

 except for the caudal, which has a fairly dense covering of small melanophores. 



There is a kidney-shaped iridescent area on the outer walls of the optic cup of the eye, close to the 

 lens. This has been regarded as a luminescent organ, but it must be the elliptical mass of fibrous tissue 



