2 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 122 



Nalbantichthys is more closely related to Melanostigma Giinther than 

 to any other genus of zoarcid fishes because both genera have the gill 

 openmg restricted to a pore entirely above the base of the pectoral fin 

 in combination with scaleless loose skm and pelvic fins absent. These 

 characters exclude the more or less related genera Gymnelus Reinhardt, 

 Lyocara Gill, Oidiphorus McAllister and Rees, and Maynea Cunning- 

 ham, all wdth the gill openmg extending downward below the dorsal 

 edge of the pectoral fin base. 



Nalbantichthys differs from Melanostigma by lacking teeth on vomer 

 and palatines and a much greater number of vertebrae — 144 to 150 

 instead of 83 to 99 vertebrae (McAllister and Rees, 1964, Nat. Mus. 

 Canada, Bull. 199, appendix table p. 110 [p. 88 gives 83 to 93 

 vertebrael). 



This genus is named Nalbantichthys in honor of my ichthyological 

 colleague Dr. Teodor Nalbant. 



Nalbantichthys elongatus, new species 



Figures 1, 2, 3 



Holotype: USNM 200671, collected in the south-central Bering 

 Sea, May 1964, by Mr. Constantine Badica, from the bottom at a 

 depth of 300 meters, by the trawler Galatzi, total length 138.3 mm, 

 standard length 136 mm, sex male. 



Paratype: No number in Institutul de Cercitari Piscicole, Bucharest, 

 taken with holotype and bearing same locality data, total length 

 110.3 mm, standard length 108 mm. 



Dr. Nalbant in a letter dated February 16, 1967, states that this 

 new genus and new species were taken "together with Sebastodes sp., 

 Sarritor Jrenatus frenatus Gilbert, Percis japonicus Pallas, and 

 Careproctus cameliae Nalbant." 



Description. — No dorsal fin ray is associated with the first 

 vertebra; how^ever, in the radiograph one free predorsal pterygiophore 

 shows up clearly just in front of the tip of the neural spine of the first 

 vertebra; dorsal and anal fin rays are equal in number to the vertebrae 

 with which they are associated except for the penultimate vertebra 

 and the hypural plate; radiographs show three rays dorsally and five 

 terminal ones on the dorsal part of the hypural plate so that the dorsal 

 fin ray counts are 148+3 + 5=156 for the holotype and 142+3 + 5 = 

 150 for the paratype. The first 25 vertebrae are abdominal, followed 

 by the caudal vertebrae, each bearing one anal ray except the penulti- 

 mate vertebra, which has four anal rays followed by three rays on the 

 caudal part of the hypural plate. Thus the holotype has 123+4+3 = 

 130 anal rays and the paratype 117+4 + 3=124. 



The penultimate vertebra appears to be composed of the elements 

 of at least three caudal vertebrae (fig. 2) since three degenerate neural 



