18 BULLETIN 180, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



BRACHYSOMOPHIS SAUROPSIS, new species 

 Plate 2 ; Figure 2, h 



Holofype.—A female (U.S.N.M. No. 115946) with the body cavity 

 crowded with very small eggs, 573 mm. in total length, taken by 

 Leonard P. Schultz on the reef of Tutuila Island, at Alofau, June 3, 

 1939. 



Two paratypes (U.S.N.M. No. 115947) were taken as follows: A 

 male measuring 462 mm. was collected by L. P. Schultz and a Poly- 

 nesian boy on the reef of Tau Island, at Siulagi Point as it emerged 

 from a cave, June 27, 1939. This specimen was nearly cut into two 

 pieces by the boy. A tliird paratype (U.S.N.M. No. 115948), only 

 178 mm. in total length, was taken by L. P. Schultz and Frank Taiga 

 on the reef of Tutuila Island, at Pagai, June 4, 1939. 



Description. — (Based on the holotype and two paratypes. Detailed 

 measurements are given in millimeters ; these were converted into pro- 

 portions in the key on page 13. The measurements for the holotype 

 are given first, followed by those for the paratypes, respectively.) 

 Total length 573, 462, 178; greatest depth of body 34.5, 21.5, 5.5; 

 length of head (tip of snout to upper edge of gill opening) 81, 61.5, 

 23.6; length of snout 5.2, 3.8, 1.5; diameter of eye 4.0, 3.5, 1.2; tip of 

 snout to rictus 27.8, 22, 7.7; width of bony interorbital space 2.2, 2.5, 

 0.8; least distance between rows of lateral line pores at rear of head 



10.4, 9, 3 ; length of pectoral fin 9, 6, 2 ; distance from tip of snout to 

 anus 312, 247, 94; length of tail 261, 215, 84; tip of snout to origin 

 of dorsal fin 105, 82, 33.5; tip of lower jaw to free tip of tongue 23, 



16.5, 5.6; tip of snout to cross row of pores near midlength of head 

 41.3, 34, 12; distance between cross row of pores just behind eyes and 

 those near rear of head 31, 24.8, 8.7 ; tip of snout to cross row of pores 

 just behind eyes 11.3, 9.2, 3.3. 



Between the gill opening and anus there are 52, 51, and 51 pores 

 along the lateral line and 97, 99, and 96 from the gill opening to where 

 the pores end some distance before the end of the tail. The rear 

 part of the eye on the two large specimens is covered with thick skin, 

 and the posterior margin of the eye has several short papillae ; outer 

 sides of upper and lower lips have an irregular row of branched papil- 

 lae; the tip of snout has a papilla each side of the midline, with a 

 black bordered pore above the base ; the anterior nostrils, a little nearer 

 eye than tip of snout, are somewhat tubular; above the base of each 

 anterior nostril is a pore and another one between the anterior and 

 the posterior nostril; on top of the head at front of eye is another 

 pore ; thus three pairs of pores on the snout ; there are two pores under 

 each C3'e and another at tlie middle of the upper lip; five or six pairs 

 on lower jaw; also a pair in line with lower jaw a little behind mid- 



