2312 Bulleti7i //, United States National Museum. 



2648. KATHETOSTOMA ALBIGUTTA, Bean. 



TIead 3; greatest width 3; depth 3A. D. 10; A. 12; interorhital spaco 

 4 in head, coutainiug a deep groove, the ieugth of which is slightly 

 greater thau its width and nearly equaling length of eye. Mouth uenrly 

 vertical when closed; intermaxillary slightly protractile, the length of 

 its tooth-bearing surface f length of head; maxillary very broadly 

 expanded behind, its greatest width about 3 in length, extending almost 

 to vertical from middle of eye; end of mandible not ninth fai-ther back; 

 leu<<th of mandible If in length; mandible having 2 blunt j^rominences 

 at its posterior end ; the exposed portion of the maxillary traversed by 

 radiating strise. The lower limb of preoperculum with 3 stout spines 

 iilon"- its lower border; length of humeral spine 3 in head; humerus very 

 strou'i'ly rugose on its upper border; 3 short spines on the anterior edge 

 of preorbital. Teeth in villiform bands in the intermaxillary and niandi- 

 dible. and on vomer; palatines in a very short band; a cavity between 

 head of vomer and the processes of the intermaxillary ending in a semi- 

 circular canal behind, which is separated from the anterior cavity by 

 a flai> of skin, (iill openings very wide and only narrowly attached to 

 the isthmus, leaving a free jiosterior border. Pseudobranchia* present, 

 small; a small, narrow slit behind the last gill, its length about « that 

 of eye; gill rakers tubercular, none on anterior arch. A pair of short 

 but stout spines in front of ventrals. The origin of dorsal a little nearer 

 to root of caudal than to tip of snout, midway between base of caudal 

 and middle of eye; length of dorsal base abont 3 in length, the third 

 ray the longest, its length nearly \ length of base of fin, the last ray 

 about as long as eye, and the first scarcely longer than this. The anal 

 origin directly under that of dorsal, the base of fin slightly longer than 

 that of dorsal; the seventh, eighth, and ninth anal rays about the lon- 

 gest, their length equaling about A that of middle caudal rays; the first 

 ray not much more than \ as long as the longest and the rays gradu- 

 ally increasing in size to the ninth; length of pectoral o\ in body; 

 length of lowermost ray less than \ length of head ; only the first ray 

 simple, the rest divided. Ventral origin under eye; the longest ray of 

 ventral slightly shorter thau mandible. Caudal slightly rounded when 

 expanded, the middle rays as long as head without snout. The lateral 

 line beginning near the root of humeral spine, curving upward slightly 

 and running along back to end of dorsal, then curving downward to near 

 the middle of the caudal base; skin naked. Color, upper parts light 

 brown, the upper surface of the head minutely dotted with white; the 

 back with numerous roundish spots and oblong blotches of whitish ; lower 

 parts pale; the dorsal with 2 or three dark blotches near the margin, 

 in some cases not much larger than eye, in others fully twice as long; 

 caudal with 9 black blotches, those on outer rays largest, diftering in 

 size in difi"erent specimens, these blotches distributed over the greater 

 portion of the fin; anal pale, with the exception of a brownish blotch 

 on the membrane of the last 3 rays; pectoral with a brownish submar- 

 giual band on its outer half, this band sometimes broken up on the mem 



