1 I.-. 



ghssus (hans senere pinguis) som identisk med Linnea /'/. 

 cynoglossus, en Anskuelse, som gjendreves af Grill allerede 

 i 1864 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sei. Philad. L864). Gttnther 

 havde imidlertid givet Axten, der efterhaanden ogsaa gjen- 

 aem andre var bleven bekjendt, del aye Navn Hippoglossus 

 groenlandicus, hvorhos Fabricii /'/. hippoglossus opføres som 

 dens Synonym; dotte sidste var imidlertid iicorrect, da Pl. 

 hippoglossus, abr., atvivlsomt er den rette Hippogl. vulgaris. 



Navnet Hippoglossus pinguis (TFabr.), under hvilket Ar- 

 ten oftest er omtalt, er yngre, end Walbaum's Pleuronectes 

 hippoglossoides (1792), der saaledes indeholder det ældste 

 Artsnavn. 



Da forhaandenværende Art i tiere Henseender adr 

 skiller sig fra Slægten Hippoglossus, med hvilken den i 

 Regelen er slaaet sammen, har Gill allerede i 1861 henført 

 den under en ny Slægt, Reinhardtms (Proc. Acad. Nat. 

 Sei. Philad. 1861. App.), men da denne Slægt her. aden 

 at være characteriseret, blot er nævnt i en Fortegnelse, 

 vil Bleeker's Navn PlatysomaUcWvys, opstillet i 1862 fol- 

 den samme Art (13de Bind af Med. Kon. Akad. Wet. i 

 Amsterdam), blive at anvende. 



Bemærkninger til Beskrivelsen. Det under Nord- 

 havs-Expeditionen erholdte Individ var yngre, og havde føl- 

 gende Maal : • 



Totallængde 435""" 



Legemets Længde til sidste Halehvirvel .... 378 - 



Legemets Højde 120 - 



Halerodens Højde 34 - 



Hovedets Længde 104 - 



Pectoralens Længde paa Blindsiden 40 - 



Tænderne hos dette Individ vare paa Øjensiden oven- 

 til 15. hvoraf de inderste vare meget smaa, nedentil 7, alle 

 lange og naaispidse. Paa Blindsiden fandtes oventil 22. 

 nedentil 6. samtlige af samme Bygning, som de tilsvarende 

 paa Øjensiden. 



Straaleantallet var: D. 92; A. 71; C. 20; V. 6; 

 P. 14. 



Farven paa Blindsiden var kun lidet lysere, end Øjen- 

 sidens. 



Interorbitalrummet var hos dette yngre Individ for- 

 holdsvis smalt, sammenlignet med Øjnenes Størrelse; dets 

 Bredde var omtrent, som Øjets Tverdiameter, men mindre, 

 end Længdediameteren. 



Udbredelse. Platysomatichthys hippoglossoides er en 

 aretisk Art. der tidligst har været kjendt fra Grønland, 

 ■ hvor den allerede er beskreven i 1780 af Fabricius; den 

 synes her at være talrig paa det noget dybere Vand. Mod 

 Syd gaar den i Nordamerica i ifølge Goode & Bean) lige 

 ned til Dybderne udenfor Essex og Massachusetts i New 

 England-Staterne (42° N. B.). 



I de europæiske Farvande har den hidtil blot været 

 omtalt fra Finmarken, hvor enkelte Exemplarer i de senere 

 Aar ere fundne og opbevarede, men neppe søndenfor 70° 



to regard Fabricii /V. cynoglossus (subsequently pinguis) 

 as identical with Linneus's I'l. cynoglossus, an assumption 

 oonfuted by Gill in L864 (Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 

 L864), Gunther, however, had given the species (which håd 



meanwhile been also recorded by others) the new name. 



Hippoglossus groenlandicus, regarding Pabricius's /'/. hippoglos- 

 sus' &s\\s synonym; but the latter was erroneous, and Pl.hip- 

 poglossus Kahr. is unquestionably the true Eippogl. vulgaris, 



Hippoglossus pinguis, (Fabr.), the name under which 

 this species has been most frequently mentioned, is antici- 

 pated by Walbaum's I'lairoiiectes Itijipoglossoides (1792). the 

 earliest Specific designation of the fish. 



The species described being in several respects es- 

 sentially distinct from the genus Hippoglossus, to which 

 it has generally been referred. Dr. Gill, so far hack as 



1861, saw tit to class it as the ty] i' a, new genus, 



Eeinhardtius (Proc. 'Acad. Nat. Sci. Philad. 1861, App.); 

 but the name of this genus being merely recorded in a Cata- 

 logue, and no characters enumerated. Platysomatichthys, 

 established by Bleeker in 1862 for the same type (Med. 

 Kon. Akad. Wet. Amsterdam, D. 13). must he the correct 

 designation. 



Descriptive Observations. — The individual obtained 

 on the Expedition was comparatively young, and measured 

 as follows : ' — 



Total length 43." 



Length of body to last caudal vertebra .... 378 - 



Depth of body 120 - 



Depth of tail at base 34 - 



Length of head 104 -' 



Length of pectoral on blind side 4<> - 



The teeth on the coloured side, above, in this indiv- 

 idual 15. the innermost exceedingly small; below 7. all 

 long and acicular; on the blind side the number above was 

 j'2, below 6, similar in structure to those corresponding 

 with them on the coloured side. 



The fin-ray formula was as follows: — I). 02: A. 71: 

 C. 20; V. 6; P. 14. 



The colour of the skin on the blind side but a shade 

 lighter than on the upper. 



Interorhital space in this immature example rather 

 narrow compared to the eyes, its width being about equal 

 to the vertical diameter of the orbit, but less than the 

 longitudinal diameter. 



Distribution. — Platysomatichthys Mppoglossoides is 

 an Arctic species, tirst observed on the coast of Greenland, 

 and described, so far back as 1780. by Fabricius; through- 

 out that region it would appear to be a common fish at 

 some depth. In .North America its range southwards 

 (according to Goode & Bean) extends to the depths lying 

 off the shores of Essex and Massachusetts, in New England 

 (in lat. 42" N.). 



In the regions of Northern Europe, the species had 

 been previously met with on the coast of Finmark only, 

 where examples have in later years been taken and pre- 



