STOMIATOIDS. 269 
extremity, is rounded superiorly on the posterior margin, and extends very 
little farther backward than the orbit. The scales are large, thin, smooth, 
and deciduous ; those on the lateral line are much differentiated. 
Body black, lighter and silvery on the lower portions of the head and 
the anterior parts of the abdomen ; fins lighter, adipose possibly luminous ; 
nasal sacs lighter. 
Station. Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 
3433 25° 267 15 Ni 109° 48’ W. 1218 fathoms 36.5° F. Br. M. bk. Sp. 
STOMIATOIDS. 
Little is known of the habits of any of the fishes which for convenience 
are placed together in this group. Specimens picked up from the surface of 
the ocean have led to the conclusion that they live near the surface and are 
nocturnal ; on the other hand, structure, colors, and the fact that the speci- 
mens taken have commonly been secured over the deep sea or in dredges 
operating at great depths, rather than on the shoals, favors the idea of a 
bathybial habitat. The position of the barbel below the head and of the 
lanterns below the body, in function downward, would indicate a dwelling 
place at some distance off rather than immediately on the floor of the sea. 
Up to date the horizontal distribution has included the tropical and the 
temperate regions of the Atlantic, the Pacific, and the Indian Ocean, its 
greatest extension toward the poles being by way of the Gulf Stream and 
the Mediterranean. The group has not yet been reported from the south 
Atlantic, or the southeastern Pacific. Vertically, if the specimens entered 
the dredges at the bottom, the different genera range down to more than 
two thousand fathoms. ‘There is little in the recorded bottom temperatures 
of the stations that might preclude a polar distribution ; but the possibility 
exists that the waters of the actual habitat are nearer the surface and much 
warmer, a supposition which will account for the peculiarities of the hori- 
zontal distribution as now established. 
Of the six species in the present collection ‘five are apparently new. 
One of the five isa very distinct species of the distantly related genus 
Chauliodus ; it is described below, with a species from the Society Islands, 
and remarks are there made concerning these and other species of the 
family Chauliodids. Three of the five new species belong to the compara- 
tively well known genus Stomias; and another represents a new genus, 
