FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



161 



trals; and a very wide mouth with large teeth. 

 Several species are known, all belonging to deep 

 water; only one has been taken within the province 

 covered by this report. Their closest affinities 

 seem to lie with the lanternfishes (p. 141). 



Lancetfish Alepisaurus ferox Lowe 1833 

 Handsawfish 



Jordan and Evermann, 1896-1900, p. 595. 



Description. — The combination of a long and 

 very high dorsal fin, soft-rayed from end to end, 

 with the presence of an adipose fin behind it, 

 distinguishes the lancetfish from all other Gulf 

 of Maine fishes. The body is slender, somewhat 

 flattened sidewise, deepest at the gill covers, and 

 tapers back to a slender caudal peduncle. The 

 snout is long and pointed, the mouth wide, 

 gaping back of the eye, and each jaw has two 

 or three large fangs, besides smaller teeth. The 

 dorsal fin (41 to 44 rays) originates on the nape 

 and occupies the greater length of the back, is 

 rounded in outline, about twice as high as the 

 fish is deep, and can be depressed in a groove 

 along the back. The adipose fin recalls that of 

 the smelt in form and location. The caudal is 

 very deeply forked; its upper lobe is prolonged as 

 a long filament, and although most of the speci- 

 mens so far seen have lost this we have an ex- 

 cellent photograph showing it. The anal fin 

 originates under the last dorsal ray, and is deeply 

 concave in outline. The ventrals are about 

 halfway between the anal and the tip of the 



snout, while the pectorals are considerably longer 

 than the body is deep and are situated very low 

 down on the sides. There are no scales and the 

 fins are exceedingly fragile. 



Color. — Sides described as metallic silvery. We 

 have not seen a newly taken specimen. 



Size. — The collection of the Boston Society of 

 Natural History contains the cast of a specimen 

 about 6 feet long that was taken off Nova Scotia 

 in August 1910, and this is probably about the 

 maximum size. 



Habits. — This is an oceanic species, of the 

 mid-depths, appearing only as a stray shoaler 

 than 200 fathoms. Nothing is known of its 

 habits. A Block Island specimen had eaten a 

 small spiny dogfish. 



General range. — Widely distributed in the deep 

 waters of the Atlantic, also reported from the 

 northeastern Pacific. 87 



Occurence in the Gulf oj Maine. — A specimen 

 brought in by a fisherman from Georges Bank 88 

 about 1878 or 1879 is its only claim to mention 

 here. Goode and Bean and Vladykov and 

 McKenzie 89 have reported other captures of lan- 

 cetfishes from La Have Bank, from southeast of 

 Emerald Bank and Banquereau. Another speci- 

 men 5% feet long was caught alive in the surf on 

 Block Island, R. I., March 12, 1928, and reported 

 by Mrs. Elizabeth Dickins who sent us a photo- 

 graph of it. 



" Crawford (Copela, No. 164, 1927, p. 66) reports several A. ferox from 

 the halibut banks off the northwestern coast of British Columbia. 

 M No definite information is available as to this specimen. 

 '• Proc. Nova Scotia Inst. Sci., vol. 19, 1935, p. 63. 



Figube 75. — Lancetfish (Alepisaurus ferox) . New York market specimen. From Jordan and Evermann. Drawing by 



H. L. Todd. 

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