40 



upper rays longest. Ventrals small, subjugular, with one spine and five rays. 

 Caudal forked. 



Pyloric appendages in moderate number. 



Air-bladder with a persistent pneumatic duct. 



Distribution : Andaman Sea, Bay of Bengal : Caribbean Sea. 



I was led by a combination of external characters and by the presence 

 of a persistent pneumatic duct, to place this genus among the Chfi)eidse ; but 

 Messrs. Gill and Goode and Bean have quite properly removed it to the 

 neighbourhood of the Berycidse. They have made it the type of a distinct family 

 (Bathyclujjeidse) ; but I prefer to emphasize its very obvious relations with 

 Kurtus and Pempheris and to include it in the same family with them. 



23. Bathyclux>ea Hoskynii, Alcock. 



Bathydupea Hoskynii, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Augnst, 1891, pp. 131, 132, fig. 4 : Ilhtstkations of the 

 Zoology of the Investigator, Fishes, pl. XXVIII. fig. 2. 



B. 7. D. 10. A. 33. P. 29. V. 6. L. lat. circ. 38. 



Soft tissues fragile, bones thin. 



Head and body compressed ; the height of the latter almost exactly equals 

 the length of the former, which is one-third the total without the caudal. 

 The median abdominal line is neither keeled nor serrated. The mucous cavities 

 of the skull are large. 



Snout rectangular, formed in front by the lower jaw, which in repose is 

 almost vertical ; its length, including the mandibular element, is not quite equal 

 to the diameter of the large lateral circular eye, which is one-third the length of 

 the head ; the width of the flat interorbital space is half the diameter of the eye. 

 Nostrils small, almost superior. 



Mouth wide, its cleft nearly vertical : length of the upper jaw two-fifths that 

 of the head. Villiform teeth in narrow bands in the premaxilte, mandible, and 

 palatine, and in an inconspicuous V-shaped patch on the vomer. Tongue large, 

 bilobed. 



Gill-cleft very wide, the membranes entirely ununited; all the opercular 

 bones well-developed, and the horizontal border of the preoperculum sharply 

 serrated ; four gills ; the middle g-ill-rakers on the outer side of the first arch 

 considerably elongated ; pseudobranchi^e large. 



Head naked. Body and nape covered with large cycloid scales, deciduous 

 everywhere except on the lateral line. In the largest specimen a scale from the 

 flank measures 10 millim. in the vertical and 7'5 millim. in the antero-posterior 

 diameter. Each scale of the lateral line has a deep pocket on its inner side 

 which opens externally by numerous fine poi-es. 



