VENEFICA TENTACULATA. 319 
Lateral line distinct, with a single row of pores, of which fifty-two lie 
between the skull and the vent. Between the anterior nostrils and the 
back of the interorbital space there are eight pairs of moderate sized pores, 
and distributed over snout and head minute pores are numerous. The 
proboscis or tentacle has great freedom of movement and its function is 
undoubtedly tactile. Total length thirty-seven inches. 
Dark brown to black, edges of the fins and the mouth lighter, tentacle 
black. 
Station. Latitude. Longitude. Depth. Temperature. Bottom. 
3366 5° 30’ N. 86° 45’ W. 1067 fathoms 37° FB. Y1. glob. Oz. 
Venefica tentaculata sp. n. 
Plate M, fig. 2. 
Long and slender, tapering to snout and tail, anteriorly subround, pos- 
teriorly compressed, tail filiform; depth about one forty-eighth of the 
entire length. Head slender, one ninth of the total, tapering from nape to 
proboscis. Snout little more than half as long as the head, wider than deep, 
narrow forward, slightly widened below the proboscis, which latter rises 
from the top of the prenarial section, A very slight rounded symphyseal 
expansion on the lower jaws which fits into a shallow concavity below the 
anterior nostrils and lacks one length of the orbit of reaching to the end of 
the snout. The tentacular proboscis is nearly round and about one third as 
long as the remainder of the snout from the eye forward. Eye small, 
close upon one ninth of the snout, inclusive of the tentacle, or nearly 
one sixteenth of the entire head from the gill openings. Mouth wide, 
cleft extending backward of the orbit about one third of the latter’s 
diameter; jaws weak, lower slightly enlarged at the symphysis into a 
rounded extremity received behind the anterior group of teeth in a shallow 
excavation. Teeth very small, hooking back toward the gullet, very sharp 
on edges and apex, in villiform bands on jaws and vomer; forward band 
separated from the other vomerines by a space, narrowing or V-shaped 
forward, from which a notch extends outward in front of the maxillary 
bands. Anterior nostrils with a short tube, forward of the ends of the 
lower jaws, close to the base of the tentacle, directed forward ; posterior 
near the upper half of the eye, oblique, oblong, with a valvular fold on the 
front edge. Gill openings small, subround, hardly as large as the eye, 
