642 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxi. 



This species ranges from the East Coast of Africa to the Malayan 

 Archipelago and north to southern Japan. 

 {dorah, an Arabian name.) 



Family IX. ALEPOCEPHALID.F.. 



Body oblong, compressed, covered with thin cycloid or keeled scales 

 or with naked skin; head naked. Lateral line present or absent. No 

 barbels. Mouth moderate or large; margin of the upper jaw formed 

 by the premaxillaries and the maxillaries, the former being placed 

 along the upper anterior edge of the latter. Teeth feeble. Opercular 

 apparatus complete, its bones thin. Phosphorescent spots none, or 

 rudimentary and placed in nodules of the naked skin. No adipose fin; 

 dorsal fin long and low, posterior inserted nearly opposite the anal; 

 pectorals short, placed rather high; ventrals usually well back, some- 

 times wanting. Gill openings very wide, the membranes free from 

 the isthmus. Pseud obranchise present; no gular plate; no air bladder. 

 Stomach curved, without blind sac; pyloric coeca in moderate number. 



Fishes of the deep seas; numerous species have been described from 

 the abyssal fauna of the mid Atlantic and Pacific. 



17. XENODERMICHTHYS Gunther. 



Xeuodermicltihys Gunther, Ann. Mao;. Nat. Hist., July, 1878, p. 23 (nodidostis). 



Body rather elongate, compressed, without true scales; the skin 

 rather tough, finely wn-inkled longitudinally, with numerous nodules, 

 regularly arranged; minute, I'udimentary, scale-like productions are 

 embedded in the skin, especially on the trunk. Mouth very small, 

 with feeble jaws and rudimentary teeth in the intermaxillary and 

 mandible and a few in the maxillary. Palate toothless. Dorsal and 

 anal fins equal in length. Caudal forked. Gill opening wide, but not 

 much extending above the level of the pectoral fin. Gills well devel- 

 oped, with long gill rakers. Deep seas. 



{^evog.^ strange; deppia, ,skin; ix^'^?-, fish.) 



ig. XENODERMICHTHYS NODULOSUS Gunther. 



Xenodermichthi/s nodulosus Gunther, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., July, 1878, 

 p. 23 (south of Yeddo, Japan) ; Shore Fishes of the Challenger, 1880, p. 63 

 (off Japan). — Jordan and Starks, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., 1902, p. 579 

 (Sagami Bay, Japan). 



Head, 6 in length; depth, 7; D. 82 or 33; A. 31-33; P. 6; V. 5. Eye 

 of moderate size, its diameter greater than width of interorbital space. 

 Lateral line well developed, with scale-like structures; rest of bod}^ 

 naked, with fine longitudinal wrinkles. 



Color entirely black; luminous nodules all black. 



Of this species we have examined one fine specimen, 21.5 cm. long, 

 from station 3697, Sagami Bay, dredged b}^ the United States Bureau 



