34 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



Myxine glutinosa Linnaeus, 1758 

 Hagfish 

 Figure 4 



Study Material. Forty-seven specimens of various sizes up to 610 mm. in length, 

 from the Grand Banks and localities on both sides of the Gulf of Maine, north slope of 

 Georges Bank, outer part of the continental shelf off Nantucket Island and off Cape Look- 

 out. Also 13 specimens from the eastern Atlantic — Norway, Denmark, Kattegat, the Adri- 

 atic and Liverpool, England. 



Distinctive Characters. The combination of jawless mouth, single nasal aperture, 

 only a single pair of external gill openings, no operculum or covering fold of skin, worm- 

 like form and lack of paired fins separate the Hag from all other fish-like vertebrates of 

 the western North Atlantic. 



Description. Trunk cylindrical throughout most of its length, its diameter about V24 

 to ^25 of its total length, tapering rearward from dorsal origin of finfold to narrowly 



Figure 4. A Myxine glutinosa, specimen 380 mm. long, from the Gulf of Maine. B Oral view of anterior 

 part of head of same. C Lingual teeth of same viewed from above, about 3 x. Z) Egg after being laid, after 

 Dean, about 2 x. 



