NO. 1303. JAPANESE OPHIDIOID FISHES— JORDAN A ND FO WLER. 757 



9. SIREMBO IMBERBIS Schlegel. 

 UMIDOJO (SEA LOACH). 



Brotula imberbis Schlegel, Fauna Japonica, Poiss., 1847, pi. 258, p. iii, fig. 3; 



Nagasaki. 

 Sirembo imberbis Bleeker, Act. Soc. Sci. Indo Nederl.,111, 18o7, Japan, IV, j>. 22. 



Head 41; depth of; I), about 90; A. about 67\ V. ^2-2; Y. 1; 

 depth of bod}" 1| in head; eye 4 in head, 2 in niaxillarv; snout 5 in 

 head, 2^ in maxillary;" pectoral 1| in head: ^•entrals 1|; head 1 in 

 trunk; head and trunk about 1^ in tail. 



Body oblong-, g-reatly compressed, and the tail taporing to a point. 

 Head oblong, compressed; snout truncate, rounded, blunt, less than 

 the eye; eye superior, somewhat elongate, its posterior margin much 

 nearer the snout than the gill-opening; mouth large, the maxillary 

 expanded and reaching a little l)eyond the eye; expanded extremity of 

 maxillary- with its posterior edge concave and its breadth at this point 

 about two-thirds the eye; nostrils lateral, in front of eye on the snout; 

 interorbital space a little less than eye, and almost flat; teeth in villi- 

 form bands in the jaws and on vomer and palatines; tongue very thick, 

 pointed, and little free in front; infraorbital rather narrow; lips 

 rather fleshy. Gill-openings large, the membranes not united, and 

 the isthmus narrow; pseudobranchijB rather small; gill-rakers 5 + 15, 

 and only those on the upper part of the arch below the bend elongated 

 and thick, the others small, rounded, and rudimentary. 



The body covered with rather large, round scales. Head almost 

 entirely scaled. 



Dorsal beginning behind the pectoral and, like the anal, rather high; 

 dorsal, anal, and caudal confluent, the latter ending in a sharp point; 

 pectoral rather broad, pointed behind; ventrals jugular, each of a 

 single ray and with their bases close together lielow the posterior part 

 of the eye. Lateral line superior and concurrent with the ))iick to the 

 base of the caudal. 



Color in alcohol brown, darker a])ove, paler beneath, and silvery; 

 opercles with a dark spot; pale longitudinal stripes on the sides, the 

 first from the snout across the upper part of the eye, so that a dark 

 stripe runs below this through the eve, then below this latter another 

 white stripe from the base of the pectoral above, and, tinally, below^ 

 this another darker one, which is indistinct; along the base of the 

 dorsal are a number of dark-brown blotches, and another series is also 

 seen along the lateral line; bases of dorsal, anal, and caudal very pale; 

 dorsal margined broadly with })lackish, the tail grayish, the anal with 

 a narrow white border, and also with a blackish marginal longitudinal 

 band; pectorals and ventrals pale. 



Length 9^V inches (280 millimeters). 



Described from Nagasaki examples. 



