Jordan and Evcrmann. — Fishes of North A)nerica. 1987 



732. MEGALOCOTTUS, Gill. 



Megalocoltus, Gill, Proc. Ac. Nat. Sci. Pliila. 1861, 166 (platycephalus) . 



This genns includes large sculpins, with broad Hat heads, diifering from 

 Myoxocephalm chiefly in the sharply projecting lower jaw; the preopercle 

 has 3 spines, the upper short and straight, the lowermost turned down 

 ward; dentation as in Myoxoceplialus ; supiascapnla with 2 spinous projec- 

 tions; top of head warty; sides with rounded tubercles in the adult; lat- 

 eral line of separated pores; a large pore behind last gill. North Pacific. 

 {fxaya<;, great; uovroz, cottus.) 



a. Interorbital space moderate, about equal to eye in adult; ventrals reaching anal 

 papilla. PLATYCEPHALUS, 2359. 



aa. Interorbital space very broad, If diameter of eye in adult; ventrals not reaching 

 vent. LATICEPS, 2360. 



2359. MEGALOCOTTDS PLATYCEPHALUS (Pallas). 



Head 3. D. VIII, 13; A, 12; V. I, 3; P. 16 or 17; lateral line 40. Lower 

 jaw somewhat longer than upper; eye 5 in head, as long as snout; nasal 

 spines distinct; orbital rim moderately prominent; a low ridge behind it 

 toward the occiput, without spines or points. Top of head between these 

 ridges forming a quadrangular depression, as broad as the eye in front, 

 but narrower behind. Top of head covered with naked, warty skin. 

 Preopercle with 4 spines, the upper as long as eye, directed upward and 

 backward, the second much shorter, the others directed downward. Oper- 

 clo with a long forked ridge, ending in 2 short diverging spines; a spine 

 directed downward on subopercle; two sharp spines on scapular region, 

 the lower the longer and touching the first tube of the lateral line. Lat- 

 eral line complete, above, it numerous rounded bony plates armed with 

 spinules as in J/, laticeps; these in 2 rows anteriorly and 1 posteriorly ; a few 

 similar plates below lateral line. Fins all high, the soft dorsal especially 

 so. Color dark, with many dark shades and spots on throat and belly, 

 especially on gill membranes; sides and belly (in males) with irregular, 

 round white spots; first dorsal with round pale spots, the membranes 

 otherwise largely dusky ; soft dorsal with 3 or 4 dark ol)li(iue cross shades, 

 between which are rows of pale spots; anal with 4 dark oblique cross 

 shades; caudal with 3 narrower dark stripes; pectoral with 4; ventrals 

 dusky with pale spots. Okhotsk Sea and western part of Bering Sea. 

 This description (after Kner) from a single specimen, 7^ inches long, from 

 Decastris Bay, near the mouth of the Amur. The species is close to M. 

 laticeps, which has been recorded from Alaska as Cottus twniopterns, but the 

 2 species are dift'erent, and the type of M. platjieephaJus has the narrower 

 interorbital space of M. tmniopterm. So far as known M. laticeps is found 

 on the eastern shores of Bering Sea, and M. platycephalas on the western. 

 Dr. Hilgendorf has, at our request, reesamiued Pallas's type of platy- 

 cephalus, a specimen a foot long. He notes: Lower jaw projecting; fin 

 rays not easily counted, the skin being dried and varnished. D. YIII-14 ; 

 A. 11. A sketch of the head shows the armature of M. laticeps, but the 

 eyes closer together, 1 diameter apart. There is a blunt tubercle behind 



