42 



bladder had broken down, and appeared to be small and 

 nacry. The vertebrae of this species are thirty-nine in 

 number. 



Hab. This Myctophum was put up along with the 

 others, and was most likely taken in the same parts of 

 the Ocean. 



Lampanyctus eesplendens. Richardson. 



Ch. spec. L. pinna pectorali longd ; pinndque dorsi 

 magna ; ossibus preorbitalibus, niandihularibusque 

 lineis scabris percursis. 



Radii:— B. 6 vel 8 ; D. 23—0; A. 18; C. 17| + | 

 spines ; P. 13 ; V. 8. 



Plate XXVII,, figs. 16, 17,18. 



The Prince of Musignano separated this genus from 

 Myctophum, on account of the greater length of the pec- 

 torals, and the somewhat pike-like depressed snout, giving 

 the fish altogether a diff'erent physiognomy. The species 

 that we have to describe differs considerably from the 

 Myctophi in the profile of the head, and in the size of 

 the dorsal, but the pectorals are more like those of that 

 genus than of Lampamjcius bonapartii. 



Form more spindle-like, and less clavate, than that of 

 IMyctoplmm. Height of body contained five or six times 

 in the total length, while the length of the head is con- 

 tained only four times. The thickness of the body for- 

 wards, and the height of the tail behind the adipose fin, 

 are each about equal to half the height of the shoulder. 

 The profile slopes with a slight convexity up to the dorsal 

 line, which is very moderately arched ; and the belly is 

 still more flat. 



The rather large eye is placed well forwards near the 

 snout, and the preo])erculum, consequently, has a large 

 backward slope. The hinder edge of the preoperculum 

 is parallel to the preoperculum, but has a wide, shallow 

 concavity ; while the suboperculum, which forms, as usual, 

 the apex of the gill-cover, slopes in the opposite direction, 

 giving to the entire flap a very difterent form to the nearly 

 vertical convex edge which it exhibits in the Myctophi. 



The nostrils are rather peculiar, one orifice being a short 

 vertical slit, separated from the orbit by a thin, vertical, 

 cartilaginous crest or valve. The other orifice is a round 

 opening, with slightly elevated edges, and lies conti- 

 guously and on the inside of the other. An obtuse me- 

 sial ridge separates the pairs of nostrils, and behind the 

 ridge, between the eyes, there is a small shallow depres- 

 sion. The skin lining it is entire and granular, but whe- 

 ther any of the glandular substance seen on the foreheads 

 of the Myctophi was deposited in this spot, cannot be 

 made out from the specimens, which have been long in 

 spirits. The top of the head is scaly up to this depression, 

 which does not go farther back than the anterior third of 

 the orbit. 



The circumference of the nostrils is rough, and the 

 suborbitar bones and lower jaw are crossed by parallel 

 rough lines. The cheeks and gill-plates are covered by a 

 few large oblique scales, which are very deciduous, and as 



the specimens were all more or less injured, their exact 

 number and disposition could not be ascertained. They 

 are represented in fig. 16, as well as they could be made 

 out from the inspection of six examples. The preorbitar 

 and fore part of the operculum and suboperculum are mi- 

 nutely grooved. 



The large dorsal extends from before the ventrals to past 

 the middle of the anal. The adipose fin is small. The 

 tail is armed on its upper edge, close to the base of the 

 caudal, by seven short spines, and below by nine, which 

 are distinctly visible to the naked eye. All the fins have 

 been more or less injured on the tips, but the figure is 

 completed from the aggregate of the specimens. The nar- 

 row scaly gill-membranes fringe the limbs of the lower 

 jaw, and are supported by six (or perhaps eight) gill- 

 rays.* 



An even band of very short villiform teeth arms both 

 jaws, exterior to the acute edge. The row which crowns 

 the edge is not actually taller than the others, but appears 

 so from its position. A similar band arms the edge of 

 each palate bone, and there is a large oval patch of very 

 minute granular teeth, nearly covering the convex disk of 

 that bone. There are no teeth on the chevron of the 

 vomer. The gills come forward within the limbs of the 

 jaw, close to the chin, leaving no tongue, except the 

 very narrow union of their arches. A prominent mesial 

 ridge, armed with minute teeth, separates these arches 

 below, and it is flanked on each side by slender rough 

 rakers, whose tips project into the cavity of the mouth. 

 The upper pharyngeals make two distinct prominent 

 cushions on each side, bristling with minute, acute teeth. 

 The lower pharyngeals are armed with still finer teeth. 



There are thirty-seven scales on the lateral line, all of 

 them fissured or notched in the middle of their free edge, 

 and furnished with a wide tube towards their base. The 

 other scales are suborbicular, and have five or six fan-like 

 furrows on the base, with a few faint lines radiating from 

 the centre, across the rest of their disk. 



The pearly dots are distributed nearly as in the Mycto- 

 phi, there being fourteen of them over the anal. There 

 is, besides, a row of oblique, orange-coloured or shining 

 specks, running backwards from the supra-scapulars over 

 the shoulders. The row is interrupted, and recommences 

 higher up, beneath the fourth or fifth dorsal rays, and is 

 continued to the end of that fin. There are similar specks 

 on the small rays at the base of the caudal, above and 

 below, and the flat upper surface of the tail, behind the 

 adipose fin, is covered with the same yellowish matter. 

 There are also a few specks of it on the flanks. These 

 pale or yellowish specks are very distinct from the opal 

 dots, and are more superficial. 



The stomach of this fish is a pretty large cylindrical 

 sac, with an obtusely conical apex, and a short, ascending, 

 pyloric branch springing from near its middle. The gullet 

 is more contracted. The pyloric creca lie in two clusters, 

 one of four, and the other of three, unequal in length, 

 the longest exceeding that of the pyloric fork of the sto- 

 mach. The stomach is black, like the inside of the mouth, 



* I could only obsene six, but it may be that one or two escaped ray 

 search. 



