24 BULLETIN 10 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



feeding on crustaceans, worms, and mollusks. Others are known to 

 be nocturnal, living or hiding in marine vegetation or the wastes of 

 sponges, gorgonians, etc., in the day and feeding by night. All, so far 

 as known, appear to be viviparous. Their egg cases are large, usually 

 quadrate, often with prehensile horns or tendrils at each corner which 

 become attached to seaweeds, rocks, or floating debris. 



The uncertain Caninoa Nardo has been suggested as much like 

 Pentanchus. Doderlein ^ placed it as a doubtful Notidamus {=nex- 

 anchus) ; Canestrini, 1872, suspected the gill openings may have been 

 wrongly counted, and Ninni in the same year suggested it may have 

 been Odontaspis ferox Agassiz in which the first dorsal was mutilated. 

 Nardo, however, in commenting on its peculiar characters erected the 

 subfamily Caninoini for it, as follows : Teeth equal, triangular, acute, 

 denticulate at base, obtuse toward mouth angles. Gill openings 5. 

 No spiracle. One dorsal. Anal p>resent. 



Genus CANINOA Nardo 



Caninoa 2Vabdo, Atti Eiunione Sci. Ital., 1841, p. 312. (Type, Caninoa chiere- 

 gJiini 'Nsirdo=8qualus harharus (Chiereghhii) Nardo, mouotypic.) 



Thalassoklephetes Gistel, Naturg. Thierreichs, p. vm, 1848. (Type, Caninoa 

 chiereghini Nardo, virtually. Thalassoklephetes Gistel proposed to replace 

 Caninoa Nardo.) 



CANINOA CHIEREGHINI Nardo 



Caninoa chiereghini Naedo, Atti Riunione Sci. Ital., 1841, p. 312 (on Squalus 



barharus Chiereghini). 

 Squalus iarMrns (Chiereghini) Nakdo, Atti Riunione Sci. Ital., 1841, p. 312 (on 



Chiereghini, Descr. Pesci Venez., 1818, sp. 12, fig. 49 9, MSS. ; type locality: 



Venice). 



Body rather elongate, rounded, somewhat curved above, swollen 

 below ; tapering gradually to tail ; head 8 in total length, small, some- 

 what flattened vertically. Snout short, obtuse, rounded at tip; eye 

 convex, oblong, placed between snout tip and mouth ; teeth triangular, 

 long, very acute, sharp, minutely denticulate near base; followed at 

 mouth angles by other round teeth, somewhat truncate, equal in both 

 jaws. Gill openings 5, lateral, long, linear. Spiracle absent? 

 Mouth very large, arched. 



Skin minutely tuberculate, rough to touch. 



Dorsal single ? ?, inserted vertically in interspace between ventrals 

 and anal; caudal falciform, with upper lobe somewhat longer than 

 lower; pectoral long, falcate. 



Color dark, tending somewhat reddish brown, clearer below, sil- 

 very. Length, ? (Doderlein.) 



The following egg cases probably pertain to species of this family, 

 though at present unidentifiable : 



1 Manuale ittiologico del Mediterraneo, pt. 2, fasc. 1, p. 82, 1881. 



