92 



LYCODIN.^. 



siirface is flat on the crown, slightly arched on the snout but has a depression between the eyes. 

 The eyes are large, their longitudinal diameter being '4 of the length of the head; seen from the 

 side, the upper margin projects forward over the forehead; seen from above, there is an eye's diameter 

 between the two eyes; they are almost circular. The length of the snout to the eye is ca. 3' , times 

 in the whole head. The lower jaw is much shorter than the upper and reaches only to the 

 vertical line through the tube-shaped nostrils. The upper lip is swollen, the lower lip tolerably thin 

 it the middle, but thick at the sides and provided as usual with a dependant fold. The teeth are 

 small, truncate and conical. On the intermaxillary there are two rows, the first of which is much the 

 longest and con.sists of 15 teeth on each side, decreasing in size towards the angle of the mouth; the 

 second row has 5 teeth. On each palatal bone there is a tolerably short row of teeth; the vomer is 

 also sparingly provided with teeth. The lower jaw has several irregular rows of teeth in the centre, 

 a single row towards the .sides. 



The dorsal fin begins almost over the point of the flattened-out pectoral, at a distance from 

 the snout equal to 20°., of the total length. It contains, so far as I have been able to count, 128 

 ra's-s, the anal 116 rays; in both numbers half the tail fin is as usual reckoned. The pectorals, which 

 contain 17 rays, are of a broad oval fonii; their length is 7,4 "o of the total length or equal to the 

 distance from the end of the opercular flap to the middle of the lens of the eye. The ventral fins 

 are small (about ^ 3 rds the diameter of the eye) and thin. 



The head and the paired fins are naked; the rest of the body is covered with small scales 

 which on the unpaired fins reach to near the margins. 



The lateral line is double, divided into a mediolateral and a ventral branch, but for the 

 greatest part of its course it is only discernible under a lens. It begins on the neck, a little above 

 and in front of the posterior corner of the gill-cover, and inclines obliquely therefrom towards the 

 belly, which it reaches at a distance of about ' ^ rd of the length of the trunk from the base of the 

 pectoral; this descending portion of the lateral line is relatively distinct with pores close together. 

 From there it continues almost on the botmdary between the side and the belly and can be followed 

 a good distance on the tail as an extremely fine light strip with very small, but rather closely-placed 

 pores. The mediolateral branch can be followed right out to the base of the caudal fin; its pores are 

 less close to one another than in the ventral branch, so that there are 2—3 scales between two 

 successive pores against i — 2 scales in the latter. 



On the head, the lateral line opens into a number of distinct pores. From the snout to 

 under the eye there is a row of 8 large pores, from the tip of the lower jaw to the preoperculum's 

 lower and posterior corner there is another row of 7 similar pores. Between the posterior margin of 

 the eye and the neck is a row of 8 fine pores, whose 5th pair is connected by a cross line of 2 pores. 

 Between the eye and the upper posterior corner of the preoperculum there are 3 pores and on the 

 preoperculum itself another 3 pores. 



The colour is a xniiform yellow-brown on the back, yellowish or grayish on the belly; of 

 markings only a dark border is seen along the free edge of the gill-cover, and the tube-shaped nostrils 

 are coloured black. The scales appear as light points. 



