65 



Beneath this nasal prolongation is a deep narrow vault, flanked on each side 

 by a pair of large, almost confluent nostrils, and containing a short, fleshy, 

 clavate tentacle. 



Eyes large, lateral, nearly circular ; their diameter is about one-seventh of 

 the total length, caudal not included ; they are strongly convergent and ante- 

 riorly are barely half a diameter apart ; the anterior limit of the orbit is in the 

 same vertical line with the anterior limit of the mouth. 



The mouth-cleft, which is horizontal, is about two-thirds of an eye-diameter 

 in width. Teeth villiform, in bands in the jaws and in broad patches on the 

 vomer and anterior ends of the palatines. 



Gill-cleft a small foramen, in width about one-fifth of an eye-diameter, 

 situated superiorly in the axilla ; two gills; no pseudobranchiae. Sub-operculum 

 prolonged and ending in a stout trifid or multifid spine. 



Body more or less covered with hard granular adherent plates, each with 

 a large radially-striated conical tubercle in its centre. On the dorsal surface of 

 the cephalic disk they are of moderate size, in contact along the middle line, but 

 distant and slightly sunken laterally ; on the ventral surface of the cephalic disk 

 they are very few and distant (except on the belly, where they may be numerous) 

 and sunken ; on the tail they are large and in close contact throughout. 



The dorsal fin is in the anterior half of the tail, the anal is completely 

 behind the dorsal : the ventrals are very long, nearly equal to the pectorals, 

 which are equal to the caudal, which is two-ninths of the total. 



Colours in life : pinkish yellow ; some specimens with a few irregular dark 

 rings on the dorsum of the cephalic disk. 



Five abdominal and thirteen caudal vertebrae, the neural spines of the 

 former fused into a trenchant ridge as in Malthe and ILilieufsea. 



The largest specimen is 3- inches long. 



Andaman Sea, 185, 188 to 220, and 405 fathoms. 



Eegd. Nos. 13014-13016, 13018-13020 : ?^', '-^, ?^ -, \^\ 



Halicmetus, Alcock. 



Uiilicmetus, Alcock, Ana. Mag Nat. Hist., July 1S91, p. 319. 



Head and anterior part of body forming a large depressed sub-triangular 

 disk. Front with a transverse bony bridge roofing in a cavity that lies above 

 the mouth and lodges a fleshy retractile tentacle representing the spinous dorsal 

 fin. 



Skin covered with granules and tubercles. 



