THE SHORE FISHES OF PERU 77 



Head and body anteriorly deep, much compressed, tapering strongly 

 posteriorly; depth at origin of first dorsal nearly twice as great as its 

 thickness, 3.8 in length anterior to base of upper lobe of caudal; 

 depth at origin of anal scarcely greater than thickness, 4.25 in head; 

 head with steep anterior profile, its length without proboscis 3.75 

 in length; snout without proboscis 4.4 in head; eye placed near dorsal 

 contour, 5.35; interorbital 3.4; gill opening slightly oblique, a little 

 longer than eye; palatine and mandibular lamina each with a single 

 rather broad tritor on each side, the palatine tritor U-shaped, with 

 the outer prong much shorter than the inner one; lateral line wavy, 

 much branched on head; mucous pores on head numerous, especially 

 prominent over eye; first dorsal beginning nearly an eye's diameter 

 in advance of insertion of pectoral, the spine rather long, somewhat 

 curved, with small barbs posteriorly, failing to reach second dorsal 

 by about three times diameter of eye, 3.1 in length; origin of second 

 dorsal nearly an eye's diam.eter in advance of base of ventral, its base 

 3.35 in length; caudal with a rather robust (in comparison with other 

 specimens examined), much produced upper lobe, without a filament, 

 or broken away if ever present and surface healed without producing 

 a new filament; the lower lobe little exserted; anal small, close to, 

 yet fully separated from lower lobe of caudal, its tip and that of lower 

 lobe of caudal coterminal, its base 3.3 in head; ventral broad, its 

 outer lobe slightly projecting, 4.75 in length; claspers slender, extend- 

 ing about an eye's diameter beyond adjacent ventral margin; pec- 

 toral very large, with greatly thickened base, reaching nearly to middle 

 of base of ventral, 2.55 in length. 



Color pale silvery; back largely black, with some indication of 

 breaking up into spots; sides with two rows of large round black spots, 

 the upper row partly in the lateral line and the other below it, and 

 ending in a spot in the axil of ventral; fins largely dusky, the first 

 dorsal with a black spot at base. 



The specimen described apparently is a mature male with claspers 

 and frontal and pelvic tenacula developed. It is 385 mm, long to the 

 base of upper lobe of caudal and has a total length of about 580 mm. 

 It was caught in an otter trawl near Coles Point on sandy bottom 

 in 10 to 15 fathoms. It is evident from a comparison of the fish de- 

 scribed with a female (U.S.N.M. No. 77722) 580 mm. long to base of 

 caudal, taken at La Ventanilla, Peru, reported upon by Evermann and 

 Radcliffe (1917, p. 18), with a male (U.S.N.M. No. 50305) 440 mm. 

 to base of caudal, from Lota, Chile, and with a male and female 

 (U.S.N.M. Nos. 86719 and 87696), 443 and 507 mm. long to base 

 of caudal, from Uruguay, that considerable variation exists among 

 specimens. The variation includes such characters as the place of 

 the origin of the dorsal with respect to the pectoral, the length of the 

 pectoral, and the length of the dorsal spine, all characters that have 



