318 DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



slightly overlapping the lower; barbels none. Mouth wide. Bands of villiform teeth in 

 the jaws, on the vomer and the palatines bones; a series of larger teeth along the sides of 

 the lower jaw. The tail is not much attenuated. Vertical fins confluent; vcntrals close 

 together, reduced to a pairot fine, simple fdaments, and inserted somewhat behind the isth- 

 mus, below the middle of the operculum. 



Gills 4, with short, broad giil-rakers and well developed lamina', rseudobrauchiic none. 

 Branchiostegals 8. Pyloric appendages. (GUnther.) 



CATiETYX MESSIEKI. 



This genus is represented by two species, Cata'ty.v Mefisieri, loc. cit., pi. xxiii. Fig. B, 

 obtained by the GhaUviujcr in Messier Straits (Station 300 A), at a depth of 345 fathoms. 



The Albatross took four specimens of another form, Catatyx rubrirostris, in 205-359. 

 fathoms oft" the coast of California. 



SACCOGASTER, Alcoek. 



Saccogastci; Alcock, Ann. ami Mag. Nat. Hist., 1889, (Nov.), 389 ; Bathybial Fislies of the Bay of Bengal, 1889, 

 15; Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) vill, July, 1891, 30, pi. vii. Fig. 3; Proc. Z. S., London, 1891, 226. 



Body compressed, little elongate, partly invested by minute, membranous, non-imbri- 

 cated scales. Abdomen large. Head with loose, scaleless skin. Snout a little inflated, not 

 projecting beyond the equal jaws. Bones of the head firm, without spines, the mucous 

 channels well developed, but without conspicuous external openings. Opercles uiuirmed. 

 No barbels. Eyes small. Mouth wide. Bands of villiform teeth in jaws, palatines, and 

 vomer, and an inner row of enlarged teeth in the mandible. Vertical fins confluent with 

 the caudal. Ventrals simide filaments. Four gills; 8 branchiostegals ; no pseudobranchite. 

 No pyloric cicea. 



Keiiresented by Saccogaster maculatus, Alcoek {loc. cit.), from 193 fathoms. Bay of Ben- 

 gal, lat. 20° 17' 30" N., Ion. 88° 50' E., and from stations 120 of the Investigator, in 240-276 

 fathoms. 



The name Saccogaster, which alludes to the distended abdomen, was based upon tlie ap- 

 pearance of the type described in 1889, which Alcoek has since found to contain distended 

 ovaries, full of developing embryos. Saccogaster is viviparous, and the males have been 

 found to have a postanal papilla which serves as an iutromittent oigan. 



DIPLACANTHOPOMA, GUnther. 



Diplacanthopoma, GtJNTHER, Challenger Report, xxii, 1887, 15. 



Body compressed, elongate, covered with small and thin scales; lateral line very in- 

 distinct; head rather depressed, naked, with thin bones and wide niuciferous channels. 

 Eyes of moderate size. Nostrils far apart. The posterior widely open, in the front of the 

 eye, and the anterior at the extremity of the snout. Operculum with two si)ines, one point- 

 ing backwards, the other situated behind the angle of the preoperculum and pointing down- 

 wards; preoperculum unarmed. Snout not swollen, broad, depressed, theiipper jaw slightly 

 overlapping the lower; barbels, none. Mouth of moderate width; bands of villiform teeth 

 in the jaws, on the vomer and the palatine bones. Tail attenuated; vertical fins confluent; 

 ventrals close together, reduced to a pair of simple filaments and inserted somewhat behind 

 the isthmus below the middle of the operculum. Gills, 4, with lanceolate widely-set gill- 

 raiiers, and well-developed lamime. rseudubranchiie, none. (Giinther.) 



