206 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol.42. 



Family CEKATIID.E. 

 DERMATIAS Smith and Radeliffe, new genus. 



Body short, deep, compressed, slightly elevated. Head large, 

 subquadrangular, a long, deep, longitudinal trough on forehead ; snout 

 broad and blunt; mouth moderate, nearly horizontal, the mandible 

 projecting but slightly, bearing a strong bifid spine at its posterior 

 end; teeth depressible, cardiform, mainly in one row; vomerine 

 teeth present; no palatine teeth; eyes lateral. lUicium short, two- 

 jomted, the basal joint procumbent; a second nonfunctional dorsal 

 spme on head, entirely concealed by skin, soft dorsal and anal mod- 

 erate, more or less liidden by skin; caudal large; ventrals absent. 

 Skin naked, very loose, and soft. Gill-openings large, below axil of 

 pectorals. 



This genus appears to be more closely related to DolopicJithys of 

 Garman than to any of the other ceratiids. The form of head and 

 body and of the ilhcium and the better developed fins are distinctive. 



Ti/jpe species. — Dermatias platynogaster. 



DERMATIAS PLATYNOGASTER Smith and Radclifie, new species. 



Plate 17, fig. 3. 



Dorsal I- (i)-7; caudal 9; anal 4; pectoral 15. 



General form compressed, irregular, dorsal surface with shght 

 curvature, ventral surface greatly decurved, the very large stomach 

 hanging down like a great pouch; head large, subquadrangular, 

 ridged, its length measured to anterior margin of gill-openmg 2.14 

 (2.90 in total length); body compressed, depth when stomach is 

 empty 1.55 (2.10 in total length); caudal peduncle very deep, depth 

 2 in head ; eye minute, buried beneath a circular patch of transparent 

 unpigmented skin, situated in a broad depression between supra- 

 orbital ridge and premaxillary, its diameter 6.66 in snout; snout 3.19, 

 truncate at tip, as broad as long; mouth moderate, nearly horizontal; 

 maxillary 1.91, reaching considerably beyond vertical from posterior 

 margin of eye; mandible 1.48, projecting but slightly, a fleshy knob 

 below tip, posteriorly ending in a stout bifid spine, the larger spinule 

 curved outward ; nasal tube elongate, below level of eye, on anterior 

 prolongation of supraorbital ridge; interorbital 4.85, deeply concave, 

 the longitudinal trough extending from tip of snout nearly to occiput ; 

 a preorbital knoblike structure, covered by skin, lies in front of nasal 

 tube, a strong trenchant ridge extends backward over eye, ending 

 in a strong outwardly curved spine; teeth in jaws mainly in one 

 row, depressible, cardiform, those in upper jaw quite irregular; a 

 stout canine on each side of vomer; skin of head and body smooth; 

 gill-opening represented by a broad curved slit, lying below base of 

 pectoral. 



