28 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 



VOL. 84 



Entire interorbital space and top of head above a line from mid- 

 dle of posterior margin of orbit to upper end of gill opening cov- 

 ered with small scales; these continuous posteriorly with a band of 

 scales of irregular size, most of them larger than those of the head, 

 covering the entire body above the lateral line. A triangular naked 

 patch under the anterior end of the lateral line, bordered ventrally 

 and posteriorly by a band of enlarged scales extending upward and 

 backward from the axilla to the arch of the lateral line; this band 

 merges posteriorly into smaller scales, rather widely spaced and 

 tending toward imbricated arrangement, which cover the posterior 

 portion of the body below the lateral line with the exception of a 

 narrow streak along the base of anal fin and ventral surface of 

 caudal peduncle; these scales, which near the lateral line approxi- 

 mate the size of the dorsal scales, become minute ventrally. A few 

 minute scales occur just anterior to the base of the pelvic fins and 

 in a narrow, irregular, median line extending from slightly behind 







Figure 5. — Ricuzeniua nudithoraw, new species, holotype (U.S.N.M. no. 102104). 



the base of pelvics to just in front of anus, where the line bifurcates 

 and is continuous with the lower band of posterior body scales. A 

 few scattered, minute scales occur dorsal to this line. The number 

 of spines on the general body scales is roughly dependent upon the 

 size of the scales themselves, which varies greatly. Lateral line 

 armed with 44 large scales. 



Eyeball bearing a band of small fleshy papillae bordering the iris 

 dorsally and anteriorly; these evidently represent vestigial rem- 

 nants of scale pockets, small scales being found in the same position 

 in Ricuzenius pinetorum. Two minute cirri near lower margin of 

 preorbital, one just in advance of and one behind the anterior 

 pore. A single simple cirrus near posterior edge of maxillary; a 

 long slender cirrus at upper posterior margin of each orbit; two 

 similar cirri, of progressively smaller size, in line behind each of 

 these; a simple or branched cirrus midway on suborbital stay; a 

 simple cirrus on base of the lower two or three preopercular spines ; 

 a minute cirrus near posterior end of opercle; a single cirrus just 

 behind the gill opening and midway between lateral line and upper 



