380 



DEEP-SEA FISHES OF THE ATLANTIC BASIN. 



HYPSIRHYNCHUS IIEPATICUS, Facciola. 

 Hypsirhynchiix hepatituia, Facckii.a, hic. cit. 



This species was obtained at Messina by Dr. L. Facciola, and is also represented by a 

 Naples specimen in the Florence Musenm. It has not been fnlly described, nor have we 

 seen even the ])artial description in the Naturalista SiciUano. 



STRINSIA, Rafinesque. (Figure 326.) 



Strinsin, Rafinesque, Indice iV Ittiolngi.i Siciliaiiii, 1S80, 51. — OiNTnEH. Cat. Fish. P.rit. Mns., iv, 1862, 344. 



This gemis was briefly characterized by Ilalinesqne in the followinj;' terms: 



"Gen. Strhma. Due ale dorsali, una ala anale riunita all' ala caudale." 



Giinther's fuller diagnosis would appear to have been drawn from a study of the 

 description and tigure in the "Iconogralia" of Prince Bonaparte, who seems to have had a 

 sight of Raiinesque's tyije. 



Sirinsia is known only from this one specimen, carelessly described, and probably care- 

 lessly preserved nearly a century ago. The careful work of later Italian and French ex- 

 plorers has not brought the form again to notice. Conservative and careful writers like 

 Giglioli, who has systematically reviewed all of Rafinesque's collecting fields about Sicily, 

 are beginning to omit it from their faunal lists. Something must be wrong. 



What, then, is Strinsia, or rather, what was it? This is a question which we shall not 

 attempt to answer, except by a suggestion. May not Rafinesque's tn^e have been a fish 

 belonging to some closely related genus, whose tail had been deformed or partially restored 

 after mutilations; or, indeed, may not Bonaparte's figure, as well as Rafinesque's diagnosis, 

 have been drawn from a badly preserved specimen, with the caudal rays aiul those of the 

 posterior parts of the dorsal and anal frayed out and imperfect? 



The tail of Bonai):irte's figure does not look natm-al. The figure, except for the tail, 

 answers very well to the description of Halaroyreus. 



The only species named under Strinnia is 8. tinea, Rafinesque [op. cit, 12, 52). 



MELANONUS, Gunther. 

 Melanonus, GOnther, Ann. aiul Mag. Nat. Hist., II, 1878, 19.— Challenger Report, xxii, 1887, 83, Fig. (J/. 

 gracilis) pi. xiv, fig. 13. 



This genus is represented by one species, obtaiiuMl by the Challenger in the Antarctic 

 Ocean, at l,97o fathoms, and thus characterized: 



*«S5S=5S:^SSSS553^*^^ 



JIELANONUS GRACILIS. 





Head and body rather conq)ressed, covered with cycloid scales of moderate size, and 

 terminating in a long, tapering tail. Eye of moderate size; month wide, anterior and lat- 

 eral; both jaws with narrow bands of villiform teeth; vonicr and palatines with very nar- 

 row bands of minute teeth. Barbel none. Dorsal fin with a short anterior and a ]K)Sterior 

 division; the middle ixjrtion commences immediately behind the anterior, and hastlieante- 

 rior rays well developed; the posterior division is confluent with the extreme caudal rays 

 and the posterior anal division. Anal like the dorsal, minus its anterior division. The 

 outer gill rakers of the first branchial arch strong and long, longer than the gill laminae. 



