182 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MVSEUil. 



Under side of head completely scaled; scales between the strong 

 ridges of the head small, mostly with a single median keel, excepting 

 a series of scales midway between the occipital and postorbital ridges. 



Subopercle sharply produced downward and backward at its lower 

 angle. Branchiostegals 6. Only 9 pyloric caeca, two-thirds as long 

 as the eye. 



Tabic of measurements in hundredths of tengtli to anus. 



Genus ABYSSICOLA Goode and Bean. 



Abyssicola Goode and Bean, Oceanic Ichthyology, 1895, p. 417. 



This genus is doubtless a close ally of Coelorhynckiis, having the 

 snout produced, the suborbital ridge continuous to the preopercle. 

 the median rostral, occipital, and postorbital ridges present, and thq 

 dorsal spine smooth. Abyssicola differs from C oelorhy nchus chiefly 

 in dentition, having the teeth biserial in both jaws (crowded on sides 

 of upper jaw) instead of in bands. The ridges of the head are 

 weaker and the sides of the head much straighter, being much less 

 angulated at the preorbital ridge. The sharp, backward projection 

 of the subopercle at its lower angle and the strongly divergent ridges 

 on the scales seem to place Abyssicola near those species of Coelo- 

 rhynchus here referred to the subgenus Oxymacrurus., but the snout 

 is less produced and the anus more remote from the anal than in any 

 species in that section of C oelorhy nchus. The anus is preceded by 

 a large naked fossa, containing a gland-like body covered by thickly 

 pigmented tissue. 



Only the type-species is known, and this is rather common off the 

 east coast of Hondo. 



