I.YCODDins. 



fil7 



AnijitiUa heneri. Gtimi, Ami., "SUi^. Xi.l. Ui^t.. scr. W . vul. 

 XIII, (1874), p. I. -ill: 1>AY (Zoaixes), Vtw. Zt.ol. Soc'. Loud. 

 1882. |i. r,w. 



Li/codes Sarsii \\(nil(i .seein to lie the siiiMllcst Scaii- 

 (lin;nian species of tlic genus, fur the hirgest speciiiieii 

 among tliose found hy Saks in Xorwav was oiih' (i2 

 nun. long, and the specimen described I)y (iC n ini:ii IVum 

 rlic Forciipinc Expedition measured H'y mm. .\s yet. 

 liowever, it ma\' he doulitfnl whether tiie s|iefies is 

 really distinct from J.i/radcs Vcnillii, whii'h has been 

 described bv Buowx-(i(MiiM.: ;ind 1)K.\n" from the deep 

 water off Nova Scotia and New England, and which 

 attains a length of at least 18 cm. According to Cor.- 

 i.KTr, however, the latter foi'm is distinguished b\' the 

 extension of the scaly covering over the lower part of 

 the bod\- as well, the collection of the spots into more 

 regular transverse bands across the sides, the pointed 

 tail, and the stronger teeth, peculiarities all of which, as 

 we have seen in the preceding forms of the genus, maj' 

 appear as differences dependent on age and se.x. 



The slender, Anguilliform body distinguishes />//- 

 (■<i(les Saisii from the preceding forms of the genus. 

 The greatest depth of the bodv, just behind the head, 

 is about '/i2 (8'4 — 8'1 %), and its depth at the begin- 

 ning of the anal tin ' j- <ir \ ^^; (about (3' , %) of its 

 length. Its lireadth in front is ecpial to. behind only 

 slightly less than its depth, the terete shape being dis- 

 tinctly pensistent back to the hindmost part of tiie tail. 

 The length of the head is about ' j; (l(i or 17 %) of 

 that of the body. It is of a rounded quadrilatei-al, pa- 

 rallelopiped form, reminding us of the head of the 

 common snake, with comparativeh' short and roundish 

 snout. In a specimen 62 mm. long the length of the 

 eye is ' ,„, and that of the postorbital part a little 



more than ' ^, of the length <>!' tiie head. The large 

 niuciferous cayities along the u]jper and lower jaws — 

 the row of the latter being continued back to the inferior 

 corner of the preopei-culum — suggest that in this spe- 

 cimen the characters of \'outh have been persistent, 

 'i'lie beginning of the dor.sal fm lies at the end of tiie 

 first (piarter of the body, that of the anal tin just in 

 front of the enti of its llrst thii'd, the length of the tail 

 thus measuring not (|uite 70 "„ of that of tlie l)od\-. 

 The length of the pectoral tins is about equal to the 

 postorbital length of the liead: these fins are blackish 

 brown at the upper margin. The ventral tins are co- 

 nical and of about the same IcTigth as the eye. They are 

 set in front of the line between the lower angles of the 

 gill-openings. Without dissection it is difficult to de- 

 termine the luimber of their rays; but they seem to 

 contain at least three rays each. 



Ljiaxles Sarsii was discovered in 18(11) bv Proi'. 

 (t. (). Sars, and was described in 1871 by Collett 

 from a young specimen 43 mm. long, taken at a depth 

 of between 100 and 150 fathoms in Hardanger Fjord. 

 In 1882 Saks again met ^v\t\\ the species during his 

 dredging operations at a depth of between 80 and 200 

 fathoms off Beiaii outside Trondhjem Fjord, where he 

 took three specimens between 57 and 62 mm. long. 

 During the Porcupine Expedition of 1869 Wyvillk- 

 Tiio.Mi'.sdN took a specimen 85 mm. long "in the North 

 Atlantic at a depth of 180 fathoms." Whether it is 

 identical in species with Lycodes VerriUii, a form quite 

 common, according to Brown-Goode and Bean, on 

 the east coast of North America, may still remain an 

 open question. In any case it is up to the present 

 one of the rarest forms in the Scandinavian fauna. 



LYCODES MTR.EXA. 



Fig. 152. 



Body 2}l(ii>i yrayisli hroicii. Sralef: sraffercd and inrgidarly disfiihidcd, bitf extendiuy, irlirti complete, over the 

 irhole body except the head and _ftns. Depth of the body at the beginiiiny of the anal fin about 4 % of its oivn 

 leiiyth. Tall pointed. Leiiyth of the head less than :21 % (/.'>' ., — 16 ?i) of that of the tail from the heyinning 



of the anal fin to the fiji of the last fin-rays. 



R. br. 5; D. 101 — 118: ^1. 



-103: P. 13—17: V. 3 (?). 



II. p. 2.i: Gtur, 1-hep Sim Fish.. Clialleng. Exped.. part. 

 j LVII (Zool.. vol. X.XII), p. 7'.), tab. XII. tig. .1. 



i>;/it. Lycodes murcena, Coll., Forli. Viil. Selsli. t'lirist. 1878, No. 4, 

 p. 15 et No. 14, p. 74: N. Nonth. E.vped., Zool., Fislce, 

 p. 116, tab. IV, Hgg. 29 — 31; Uhu.. Hv., Norg. Fisk., vol. \ ceding one, the caudal part being prolonged to such 



° Amer. .Journ. Sc, ArLs. vol. XVI (1877) p. 474: Bull. Ess. Inst., vol. XI (1870) p. 9: Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., vol. 3 (1880), p. 477. 



This species is still more elongated than the pre- 



