578 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 112 



Diagnosis: No spinous dorsal fin. Dorsal soft rays 13 to 15. 

 Anal soft rays 12 to 15. Pectoral rays 14 to 16. Pelvic rays I, 5, 

 the spine obscured by skin. Pelvic girdle with paired anterior 

 processes of conical spines protruding through the skin. Top of 

 head covered by exposed cranial bones; a shallow anterior recess of 

 the frontal bones between the eyes. Posterior nostrils not in fringed 

 grooves. Lower jaw without a pair of prominent converging bony 

 ridges. Preoperculum with three spines extending from ventral 

 margin; operculum without a spine. Cleithral spine prominent, 

 conical, sharply pointed, and extending posterodorsally. No scales 

 present (scalelike structures present in lateral line). Lateral lines 

 on each side of body extending from head along back close to dorsal 

 fin, bending down to middle of caudal base, and ending between and 

 nearly at ends of central caudal rays. 



Color: Lower half of body whitish. Upper half of body with 

 rounded white spots on brownish background, margins of the spots 

 of darker brown, the spots confined mainly to predorsal area on small 

 specimens, on large specimens the posterior spots larger and elongate. 

 Pectoral fins with brownish black pigment across the fins. Pelvics 

 clear. Anal fin with small area of pigment at posterior base. Dorsal 

 fin with two to five and caudal fin with three or more blackish elongated 

 spots, the spots more numerous in larger specimens. 



Size: Largest specimen examined 204 mm. S.L. (about 10.2 inches 

 T.L.). Smallest specimen examined 29 mm. S.L. A 21-mm. S.L. 

 specimen is identified only to genus, because it lacks distinctive pig- 

 mentation and the pectoral fins are damaged. 



Range: From Cape Lookout, N.C., to the Florida Keys and 

 around the Gulf of Mexico to Campeche Bank off Yucatan. Depth 

 records of all but one of the known specimens range from 22 to 100 

 fathoms, with the majority of these records between 30 and 60 

 fathoms. One specimen was recorded from 210 fathoms south of the 

 Florida Keys where the Continental Shelf is very steep. 



Kathetostoma cubana Barbour 



Plate 3c-d 



Kathetostoma albigutta cubana Barbour, 1941, p. 2 (type locality Atlantis station 

 3421 off the northern coast of Cuba. Holotype and 13 paratypes in Museum 

 of Comparative Zoology, Nos. 35506, 35508, 35510, 35511, 35512, 35513, 

 and 35514; 2 paratypes in U.S. National Museum, No. 153586; 2 paratypes 

 sent to Museo Poey, Havana). 



SPECIMENS EXAMINED 



Kathetostoma cubana: 27°39' N., 79°15' W., Silver Bay station 441, 275-300 

 fathoms, June 9, 1958 (2), 67.5-119 mm. S.L., BLBG. 24°04' N., 79°15' W., 

 Combat station 448, 250 fathoms, July 24, 1957 (1), 54.5 mm. S.L., BLBG. 

 24°04' N., 79°15' W., Combat station 448, 250 fathoms, July 24, 1957 (1), 55 mm. 



