174 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



braiichiostegal arches, bearing, generally, 3 or more (most generally C or 7) rays on each 

 side; tlie lower jaw is composed of a dentary, and, behind, of an artienlar, angular, 

 and surangnlar; the scapular arch has an undivided ]iroscapula (to the inner side of which 

 are apposed at least a hypcrcoracoid and hypocoracoid), and is connected Mith the cranium 

 by postero temporal and postteniporal bones; the brain is differentiated, according to the 

 current nomenclature, into (1) a cerebral part, consisting of cerebral hemispheres and optic 

 lobes, and, in front, small, olfactory lobes; and (li) a cerebellar part, cerebellum, which is 

 moderately developed, covered, and simple. {Gill.) 



Family BERYCID^^. 



Beryddw, JjOyvF,, Proc. Zodl. Soc, London, 1839, 76; Hist. Fishes of Madeira, p. 48, 1843 (also p. viii). — GCn- 



TiiER, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., i, 1859, 8. 

 Beri/eiil(v, Gill, Arrangement, Families of Fishes, 1872, 10 (No. 161) (=Giinther's Herycidie, genera v-ix, loc. 



cit., pp. 12-50).— Jordan & Gilbkrt, Brill. 16, U. S. Nat. Mus., p. 457. 

 Holocentroidci, Bleeker, Tentamen, 1859, xix (in part). 



Body oblong or ovate, compressed, with scales ctenoid, cycloid, foliate, or granular. 

 Head large and tliick, not exceedingly cavernous. Mouth M'ide, oblique. Eye lateral and 

 large. Maxillaries large, premaxillaries protractile; suborbitals narrow. Teeth villiform, 

 in one or more bauds, sometimes with a few pairs of fangs, as in Gaiilolepis. Opercular 

 bones usually spinous, and the other bones of the head usually strongly serrated. Branch- 

 iostegals vii-viii ; gill membranes separate, 3; gills -4, a slit behind the fourth; pseudo- 

 branchite present; gill-rakers moderate. A single dorsal; anal with but few spinous rays; 

 ventral fins thoracic, with 6 or more soft rays; pyloric cseca numerous. 



This family is characteristically bathybial, few members being known to occur in shal- 

 low waters, and, indeed, with the exception of the family Holoccntridw, the whole of the 

 superfamily Berycoidca as proposed by Gill, including the families Berycidcc (except two 

 species of Bcri/j-), Trachichthyiflw, iSt€pha7wherycid(r, and Anomalopidw, are found at very 

 considerable deptlis. Monocentrida', known from Chinese and Japanese seas, are probably 

 also inhabitants of the region below 100 fathoms. As Glinther has shown, this group are 

 found only in the sea, and are provided with highly developed apparatus for the secre- 

 tion of superficial mucus, thus fitting them for living at a greater depth than any other 

 allied group. " They have," wrote Giinther, " a world-wide distribution in all tropical seas." 

 In this connection the geological history of this group is particularly significant. " Fossil 

 Berycoids," says Giinther, "show a still greater diversity of form than living; they belong 

 to the oldest Teleosteous fishes, the majority of Acanthopterygians found in the chalk being 

 representatives of this family. Beryx has been found in several species, with other genera 

 now extinct: Pseudoheryx, with abdonunal ventrals, from Mount Lebanon; Berycopsis, with 

 cycloid scales; Homonotus, Stenostoma, Bphenocephalus, Acantis, Hoplopteryx, Platyconnus, 

 with granular scales; T'odovyx, with a dorsal fin extending to the neck; Acrogaster, Mncro- 

 hpis, and Bhacolepu; from the chalk of Brazil. SiJecies of Holoccntrum and 2Iyrlpristis 

 occur in the Monte Bolca formation." 



KEY TO THE SUBB^AMILIES AND GENERA" OF BEEYCID^E. 



I. Scales ctenoid. Teeth villiform on Jaws, palatines and vomer Berycinw 



A. Muz/le short; chin projecting. 



1. Pre operculum spineless; opercular bones serrated. 



a. Anal spines, 4 ; ventral rays, 7 or more Bervx 



II. Scales cycloid; teeth villiform on jaws, palate toothless; head large and thick; cleft of mouth wide, 



oblique, ventrals i, 10 Melamphainm 



A. Teeth in bands. Scales large. 



1. Anal far behind dorsal. 



a. Anal with 2 spines and 6 r.ays; dorsal with C spines; ventral with 7 rays. Teeth in single 

 rows Mblamphaes 



2. Anal origin under posterior end of dorsal. 



a. Eye moderate. Anal with 1 spine and 8 to 9 rays; dorsal with 3 spines; ventrals with 7 rays. 

 Teeth sometimes in double rows Plectromus 



