PHILIPPINE MACROUROID FISHES GILBERT AND HUBBS. 533 



has already been given. The teeth, of small size, are crowded into 

 narrow bands on the jaws. 



The fins are essentially like those of the other forms, the chief 

 difference being in the number of ventral rays, which is 8 (7 in 

 torvus)] 127 fins were counted, of which 125 had 8 rays; the two 

 fishes with 7 rays in one ventral had 8 rays in the other. The lengths 

 of the various fins, when entire, are given in the table of proportional 

 measurements. The base of the pectoral lies between the verticals 

 from the origin of the dorsal and the base of the ventral. 



Coloration in alcohol : brown on the trunk, becoming much darker 

 near the front of the first dorsal fin and near the occiput; the tail is 

 light yellowish, with traces of a median silvery streak; the middle 

 of the sides of the trunk is silvery ; the belly is underlain with darker, 



Fig. 32. — Hymenocephalus striatissimds aeger. Type. 



but superficially is silvery behind the ventrals and coppery before 

 them. The region of the belly, extensively striated, is separated from 

 the sides by a dark line, which extends from the blackish streak at 

 the pectoral base to the anus ; this dark line lies over the postclavicle. 

 Below this streak the skin becomes more leathery than elsewhere, and 

 is marked by a pattern of "striae," consisting of fine parallel and 

 alternating lines of purplish black and silvery color connected with 

 structural modifications. The lines are vertical (or transverse be- 

 low) along the sides of the isthmus and backward to the ventrals and 

 thence upward on the face of the shoulder girdle to before the pectoral 

 fins, and backward almost to the anus. The striae in a small patch 

 inward and forward from the ventrals are irregularly arranged, 

 like the papillary ridges on one's fingers. Toward the mid-ventral 

 line behind the ventral fins the striae become longitudinal. A 

 squarish region before the ventrals, the center of which is located at 

 the anterior lens-shaped organ, is devoid of striae. The gular mem- 

 branes, as in the other subspecies of striatissimus and as in long- 



