466 PROCEEDINGS OF UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



continuous with the .caudal, composed entirely of spines, of which a few 

 anterior ones are weak. 



Anal fin commencing a little in front of the middle of total length, 

 composed of a couple of spines and a large number of split rays, con- 

 tinuous with the caudal. 



Caudal fin moderately long, i^ointed. 



Ventrals absent. 



Abdominal viscera as in Cryptacanthodes. The stomach is a simple 

 straight sac. The intestine is short (three- fourths of total length in the 

 typical species). Pyloric caeca few, short, not greatly unequal in size. 



Type, Delolepis virgatus Bean. 



The close resemblance of Delolepis to Gryptacantliodes will be at once 

 observed. The two are nearly identical in every other respect save the 

 dermal structure. The muciferous channels are more developed in 

 Cryptacanthodes, but the arrangement is similar. Belolepis is, therefore, 

 established as a distinct genus mainly on the single character of devel- 

 oped scales, a character which I consider of sufficient importance in this 

 small family to serve as a basis of subdivision. 



7. Delolepis virgatus, new species. 



Captain Nichols forwarded two fine specimens of the fish which is 

 liere described: one of them taken at the head of Kingcombe Inlet, 

 British Columbia, in 18 fathoms of nearly fresh water, August 2, 1880 

 (numbered 8G in the collector's list and called "eel"); the other caught 

 at Port Wrangel, Alaska, in the latter part of August, 1880 (numbered 

 111 in collector's list and called "eel"). These types are numbered 

 29149 and 29150 in the United States National Museum Fish Eegister. 

 The smaller is 470 millimeters (18-j^ inches) and the larger 795 millime- 

 ters (31-1% inches) in length. 



The body is eel-shaped, moderately compressed and tapering in its 

 second half; its greatest height, which is about midway between pectoral 

 and vent, contained 11 times in total length and equal to greatest width 

 of head; greatest width of body slightly exceeds length of upper jaw. 

 Beginning at a short distance behind the origin of the dorsal tin small, 

 oblong, cycloid scales, closely imbricated, (;over a strip of the body along 

 the region traversed by the lateral line; the scaled area gradually widens 

 until, from the vent backward, the whole tail is covered except a very 

 narrow strip along the dorsal and anal tin bases. 



The length of the head to end of operculum is contained from (3 to (5^ 

 times in total length; its width and depth are nearly equal. Width of 

 interorbital area, measured on the bone, equals length of snout and one- 

 third of length of lower jaw. The supramaxillary extends a little behind 

 the eye; its length is contained 3 times in (listan(;e from snout to dorsal 

 fin. The length of lower jaw is contained 12.} times in total length. The 

 eye is one-half as long as the snout and one-eleventh as long as the 

 head. The nostrils are placed immediately behind the upper lip and as 

 far apart as the limits of the interorbital space. 



