58 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Chaunax, Lowe. 



Head very large, depressed; cleft of the mouth wide, subvertical. Skin covered 

 with minute sjiines. Jaws and palate armed with bands of small teeth. The spinous 

 dorsal fin is reduced to a short spine above the snout. The soft dorsal of moderate 

 length, anal short ; ventrals developed. Gills two and a half ; pseudobranchise 

 none. 



The fourth branchial arch does not bear a gill, but its integument is dilated, and 

 forms a broad fold along its convex margin. The dorsal spine with the terminal tentacle 

 can be entirely received into the grove behind it ; the tentacle is fleshy, double-heart- 

 shaped, and covered wdth delicate filaments of a white colour. 



Chaunax pictus (PI. X. fig. A). 



Chaunax picfus, Lowe, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. iii. p. 339, pi. li. 

 „ „ Guntk, Fish., iii. p. 200. 



„ „ Goode, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. iii., 1881, p. 470. 



„ Jimbriatus, Hilgendorf, Sitzungsb. Gesellscb. naturf. Freunde, 1879, p. 80. 

 „ „ Steindachner und Doderlein, Denkschr. d. k. Akad. d. Wis.*;. Wien, xlix., 



1884, p. 194. 



The specimens of this fish have been obtained at very distant localities. It was first 

 discovered at Madeii'a by jNIr. Lowe and subsequently by Mr. Johnson. A single specimen 

 forms part of the Challenger collection, and was obtained near the Fiji Islands, at Station 

 173, from a depth of 315 fathoms. Hilgendorf and Doderlein record its existence in 

 the Sea of Japan, considering the specimens to be a distinct species {Chaunax Jimhri- 

 atus). Finally the U.S. steamer " Fish Hawk" obtained a single small specimen on the 

 south coast of New England in 192 fothoms. 



All these .specimens I consider to belong to one and the same species. The specimen 

 from the Fiji Islands differs only in the colour of the rostral tentacle and of the grove into 

 which it is received ; these parts are black in the Atlantic specimens, and of the same 

 colour as the body in the Fiji Island example. The latter has, in common with the 

 Japanese .specimen, the lower parts of the muciferous ducts fimbriated with very delicate 

 and short tentacles, of which only a few arc to be observed in Madeiran specimens. With 

 regard to other characters on which the Japanese species was separated, I have to observe 

 that seven anal rays and round yellow spots occur also in Atlantic specimens, and that 

 the width of the interorbital space is equal to two diameters of the eye, if the soft prickly 

 non-transparent skin above the eye be taken as part of the interorbital space. 



Habitat. — Off Matuku, Fiji Islands, Station 173; depth, 315 fiithoms. One specimen 

 7^ inches long. 



