482 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol.86 



In view of its wide geographic and bath}Tnetric range, it is not 

 surprising that Porkhthys notatus exhibits considerable variation. 

 The anal rays (table 1), averaging highest in California, decrease 

 in average number both toward the north and the south. A marked 

 backward extension of the pleural row of photophores was indicated by 

 Greene (1899, p. 676) for Alaskan specimens, but some doubt is 

 attached to the claim (see page 488). The race in the Puget Sound 

 region is unusually heavy-set and dark. Specimens dredged in 

 moderate depths oflf the outer coast of Lower California and in the 

 Gulf of California differ from typical notatm not only in the 

 slightly reduced number of anal rays but also in a slightly greater 

 tendency for the retention into half-grown stages of the 6 or 7 

 dusky saddles, and in the more frequent and distinct tendency of 

 the anal fin to become margined with dusk)'; they also average 

 lighter in color. Occasionally one or a very few minute photophores 

 may be discerned behind the normal termination of the pleural row. 



The most aberrant individual that we have referred to P. notatufi 

 was dredged the farthest south, on the outer coast of Lower Cali- 

 fornia not far north of Cape San Lucas, This specimen (U.S.N.M. 

 no. 46675), a large young fish 82 mm in standard length, was 

 dredged by the Alhatrof<s on May 1, 1888, at station 2880, in 66 

 fathoms, at latitude 23°33' N., longitude 110°37' W. Unlike the 

 two doubtful forms described below, it has 33 anal and 36 soft dorsal 

 rays. It dift'oi-s distinctly from the tyi^es of P. anuJift in having 

 fewer blotches on the back and on the doi-sal fin, the margin of the 

 anal fin darker, no cirri on the posterior pores of the })k'nral hiteral 

 line, and the head larger (3.4). The 6 large dark-brown dorsolatxiral 

 blotches are more conspicuous than in notatus but less so than in 

 margaritatus. The marginal blotches on the dorsal fin are quite 

 unlike the continuous dark edging of notatus but are rather fewer 

 and more elongate than in analis or Tnarqarhntus. The blackish- 

 brown border of the anal fin is stronger than in any otlier specimen at 

 hand of notatus. A few small photopht)res are present in the pleural 

 row behind the main ones, and pores without developed cirri con- 

 tinue in the pleural row about to the end of the anal base. 



In various respects the Lower California races of P. notatus show 

 some approach toward P. myriaster and toward P. murgaritatus. 

 No intergradation between iwtatus and myriaster is indicated, how- 

 ever, for the distinction in the course of t\v$: branchiostegal row of 

 photophores remains trenchant, and the difference in the number of 

 anal rays is accentuated in Lower California (table 1). It is possible 

 that intergradation with P. margaritatus will be discovered, since 

 that species and notatus seem very closely allied. The interrelation 

 between margaritatus and notatus, in the approximate region of the 



