DKALFISIIKS. 



309 



TRACHYPTEROMORPHI. 



Bndji rlhhon-sliaped" , silver;/ and scaU'less. Dorsal Jin Ion// {extending (dom/ hi/ far flic greater part of the dorsal 

 edge), in front high or crest-shaped and sometimes separated into an anterior dorsal Jin, irhich is deciduous and 

 iisaallg wanting in old specimois. Anal fii s)iiall or iranting. I'erforal fins usually smalt, irith fen- rags and 

 horizontal hase. Ventral fins during gouth long and furnished with numerous rays, but entirely or (usually) partly 

 disappearing irith age''. Hranches of the hirer jair high and triangular. 



With the exception of tlif Cepolce, which are now 

 ivt'evred to the- Bleinioniorphs, Cuvikr's Tcenioides, as 

 lie eventually defined this f;nnilv', corresponds to the 

 Trachypteronioi'ph series, __which in Gunther is repre- 

 sented by the two series Lophotiformes and Tceniiformes''. 



In many respects the Trachypteroniorph series co- 

 mes nearest the Mackerel sei'ies: the elongated, ribbon- 

 shaped bod\', with the long dorsal fin, most nearly re- 

 sembles that of" the Trichiarlda', \mX also reminds us 

 of the Dolphin-fishes (Corgpluoia), the nakedness of the 

 bodv too, reminds us most of the former, but also sug- 

 gests the scaleless Horse Mackerels {GaUichthys), while 

 its silver}', deciduous epidermis is a rennniscence of the 



scale, in Selene, another genus of the same family. The 

 round, black, lateral spots, which are so cliaracferisfic 

 of the true Ti'achypteroids, as well as of the Dorv, are 

 also I'epresented, strangel)' enough, b\- the evanescent 

 spots in the fry of Gallirhthys. These changes of de- 

 velopment thus seem to indicate a starting-point connnon 

 to the Scombroniorph and Trachypteromorph series; but 

 from this starting point their development has advanced 

 in directions so widely difl'erent that we mav well be 

 justified in following Ginther, and treating the latter 

 series as independent. Anomalopterous charactei's, as 

 we have already remarked, belong, as a rule, to the lower 

 (earlier) stages of development, and in the Trachyptero- 



Sea-Breams (Bramidce). The horizontal base of the pec- morphs these characters have been retained in conjunc 



toral fins — which also occurs in the Trichiurida' — and 

 the high, triangular l)ra.nches of the lower jaw call to 

 mind the Opah (Lampris). Tlie history of development, 

 which is alwavs the safest guide to the determination of 

 kinsliip, also seems to point in this direction, for what 



tion witli a most extraordinary shape of the body. 



The series contains two families, the one, Lophotidfc, 

 with onh- one genus, remarkable for the restriction of 

 its occurrence, to the best of our knowledge, to the 

 Mediterranean Sea and the Japanese part of the Pacific 



we now know, thanks to Emery's valuable observations, \ (see above, p. 69), and distinguished 1)\ tlie small 

 of the development of the Trachypteroids, directs our j size of the anal tin behind the vent, which is situated 

 special attention to the extraordinary reduction in the close to the end of the tail, as well as by TJie slight 



original length of the fin-i'ays, a point which had al- 

 ready been shown in the species of the genus GaUichthys, 

 starting from the Blepharoid stage, ;ind, on a smaller 



degree of protrusion of which the mouth is capable. 

 The second family contains the true Dealfishes and the 

 Oar-fishes (Kings-of-the-Herri ngs). 



fam trachypteridj:. 



Mouth capable of eiiensire protrusion. Xo anal fn. Vent situated at the middle of the ribbon-shaped body. Xo 

 air-liladder. Psendobranchuc and jigloric appendages well-deveJoped. Xo branched or articulated fn rays'. 



This family consists entirely of true deep-sea fishes, clusively from the solitary specimens which now and 

 and our knowledge of its adult state is derived ex- j then approach the surface for some reason or other, 



" This is tlie case in tlie uiuscuiii-speciiiicns preserved in spirits; but we know tliat, in these fishes, as in other true deep-sea forms, 

 the body is of extremely loose structure, and shrinks considerably after death, while during life it is probably more terete. The fishermen 

 of Finniark stated to LilljeborG in 1848 that the Dealfish lie received from them, was "about 6 in. thick somewhat behind the head" iust 

 after its capture, i. e. at this spot the thickness w.is more than half the depth. 



'' In Lophotes, however, the ventral fins are described as small, with the ordinary number of rays. 



^ Cuv., Val., Hist. iXat. Poiss., vol. X, p. 309. 



•' Acanlhopterygii §§ III and IV, Syst. Si/n., Cat. Brit. Mus.. Fish.: Introd. Stud. Fisli., pp. 519 and 620; Handb. Ichth., pp. 3G9 and 370. 



' .\ccording to Kner (Stzber. Akad. Wiss., Wien, Math. Naturw. 01., XXXIV, i (1859), p. 437, tab. 1), however, Trachyptenis al- 

 tivelis, a Pacific species, is furnished with branched rays in the caudal fin. According to Costa (Fn. Regit. Nap., Pesci, Acant. Scomberoidei, 



