2712 Bulletin ^7, United States National Mtiseum. 



Subgenus ACEDIA, Jordan. 



3090. SYMPHURDS NEBULOSIJS (Gootle & Bean). 



Head 5f in total length ; depth 4f . D. 119 (to middle of base of caudal) ; 

 A. 107; V. 5; scales 120; eye 7^ in head; snout 5. Body slender; 

 angle of mouth belo^y front of lower pupil; teeth feeble, very slender, 

 and rather clofsely placed, ap^iarently equally developed on both sides; 

 eyes small, close together, separated by a single row of scales, the upper 

 one very slightly in advance ; tubular nostril nearer eye than tij) of snout ; 

 scales small, ctenoid, each with a median dark streak (but not keeled, as 

 erroneously stated in the original description);* jaws and snout naked. 

 Origin of dorsal a little behind eyes, highest rays 3 in depth of body ; 

 longest anal rays twice length of snout; median caudal rays longest, 

 twice length of snout ; j^ectorals obsolete ; ventrals well separated. Color 

 grayish, everywhere mottled with brown; a dark median line on scales. 

 (Goode &. Bean.) Gulf stream. A well-marked species. The increased 

 number of fin rays indicates a probability that the number of vertebra) 

 will also be found similarly increased. ()iel)itlosus, clouded.) 



Ajihoristia nebulona, Goode & Bean, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., x, No. 5, 192, 1883, Gulf 

 Stream, off the coast of Carolina; Goode & Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 458, fig. 375, 

 1896. 



Symphurus nehxdosus, Jordan & Goss, Eeview Flounders and Soles, 326, 1889. 



Order CC. PEDICULATI. 

 (The Pediculate Fishes.) 



Carpal bones notably elongate, forming a kind of arm (pseudobrachium) 

 which supports the broad pectoral. Gill opening reduced to a large or 

 small foramen situated in or near the axil, more or less posterior to the 

 pectorals. Ventral fins jugular if present; anterior dorsal reduced to a 

 few tentacle-like, mostly isolated spines ; soft dorsal and anal short; no 

 scales. First vertebra united to cranium by a suture ; epiotics united 

 behind supraoccipital; elongate basal pectoral radii (actinosts) reduced 

 in number; no interclavicles; post-temporal broad, Hat, simple ; upper 

 pharyngeals 2, similar, spatulate, with anterior stem and transverse 

 blade ; basis of cranium simple ; no air duct to the swim bladder. Marine 

 fishes, chiefly of the tropics and the oceanic abysses. The group is an oft- 

 shoot from the Acanthopierl, its chief modifications being in the elongation 

 of the actinosts and in the position of the gill opening. Its nearest rela- 

 tives among the spiny-rayed fishes are, perhaps, the Batrachoklida:. 

 (pediculatus, having a footstalk.) 



Analysis of Families of Pediculati. 



a. Gill opening.s in or behind the lower axil of the pectoral; mouth large, terminal. 



b. PseudobranchiiB present; p.seudobrachia ■\vith2 actinost.s; head broad, depressed, 

 the enormous mouth with very strong teeth ; ventrals present. 



L0PHIID.5;, ccxxi. 



* The appearance of "keeled scales," described by Goode & Bean, is due to a black line 

 on the skin under the center of each row of .scales. There seems to be no real keel, and 

 the species is congeneric with the other species of Symphurus. 



