210 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM. 



Family MICROSTOMATIDyE. 

 18. Nansenia ardesiaca Jordan & Thompson, sp. nov. (Plate XXIV, fig. 2.) 

 {Nansenia groenlandica Tanaka, non Reinhardt.) 

 This species is well figured by Tanaka. 



Description of a specimen (No. 6023a) 190 mm. in total length, taken in 

 three hundred and fifty fathoms at Okinose, in Sagami Bay, Alan Owston collection : 

 Head 4.5 in body, 5 in total length; body-depth 8 in body-length; eye 2.33 in 

 head; snout 6.5; maxillary 4.5; interorbital space 4; dorsal raj^s 10; anal 10; pec- 

 toral 12; ventral 12; scales in lateral line 55 (five of which are on caudal) ; from center 

 of breast to middorsal line 8 (counting lateral line); gill-rakers 12+25. 



Body elongate, subcylindrical, greatest depth from between posterior margin 

 of eye to insertion of dorsal fin; caudal peduncle half this depth. Eyes very large, 

 projecting somewhat above dorsal profile of head and approaching ventral profile; 

 snout very short and blunt; lower jaw somewhat projecting; mouth opening ob- 

 liquely; line of maxillary approaching vertical; maxillary covered by anterior end 

 of pre-orbital, reaching slightly behind anterior margin of eye; teeth small, conical, 

 in a single rather thick-set row in each jaw, none enlarged or canine-like; vomer and 

 palatines toothless; interorbital space broad, concave; suborbital and opercular 

 bones thin and flexible; latter with emargination above angle, leaving open passage 

 to gill-cavity. 



Dorsal fin inserted slightly before middle of distance between snout and base 

 of caudal, its base half the length of the fourth ray, which is equal to the distance 

 from the tip of snout to posterior border of eye; ventrals inserted slightlj^ behind 

 last dorsal ray, length equal to fourth dorsal ray; anal inserted nearer caudal base 

 than tips of ventrals, longest ray less than diameter of eye; pectorals narrow, first 

 and twelfth rays simple, others branched, longest ray 1.75 in head; adipose fin 

 small, inserted above posterior half of anal fin, its length 2.33 in eye. Caudal 1.5 

 in head, forked, but not deeply. 



Scales large, thin, loosely attached; base of scales coarsely serrate, each basal 

 radius projecting; circuli parallel to serrated edges, forming acute angles to cor- 

 respond to teeth of base; circuli very fine and numerous. Tube of lateral line very 

 large, its breadth a fourth of that of its scales; pores large, single; lateral line con- 

 tinued beyond base of caudal as an appendage formed of six or seven successive 

 scales and attached only at the base to caudal ray. Lateral line tube continued 

 over dorsal surface of head to snout, over the occiput and along lower margin of eye. 



Color brilliant silvery; dusky on snout, jaws, opercular plate, and bases of 

 caudal and ventrals; scales of a bright, silvery appearance. Along the center of 



