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Callionymus, Linn. 

 54. Callionymus carebares, Alcock. 



Callionymus carelares, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Sept. 1890, p. 209: Illustrations of the Zoology ok 

 THE Investigator, Fishes, pl. XX. fig. 4. 



B. 7. D. IV. 9. A. 9. C. 9 + /-. P. 21. V. I. 5. 



The upcurved brancliiostegal rays are prolonged considerably beyond the 

 suboperculum, so that the extreme length of the head is about two-fifths of the 

 total without the caudal. The height of the body is about one-sixth of the same 

 measure, and is less than the height of the head. 



Eyes large, their major diameter being rather over one-fourth of the extreme 

 head-length and one-fourth longer than the snout ; they are separated by a 

 narrow shallow groove. 



Floor of the mouth dusky. 



Preopercular spine upcurved, very fine and acute ; its length is two-thirds 

 the long diameter of the eye ; its base is advanced forwards as a sharp spine 

 of considerable length ; and on its upper border, close behind the angle of the 

 preoperculum, are one or sometimes two spinelets. 



The gill-opening is not much smaller than the orbit and is rather more on 

 the side than on the top of the head ; the branchial arches are slender and flexi- 

 ble, the gill-rakers almost rudimentary. 



The skin is loose and very thin. Lateral line single. The first dorsal fin 

 is lower than the second, its spines decreasing in length from befbre backwards ; 

 the height of the second dorsal and of the aual is not quite twice the greatest 

 body-height ; the length of the caudal is rather more than one-fourth of the 

 total in the female and about one-fourth the total in the male ; the pectorals are 

 rather shorter than the ventrals, which are as long as the postorbital portion 

 of the head and reach to or just beyond the origin of the anal, when laid back. 



The intestine is convoluted ; the anal papilla is very slender, and in the 

 male it is very much longer than it is in the female. Vertebrae 8/13. 



Colours in life : — the upper half of the head and body and all the fins range 

 from sepia-grey to blotchy black, and the ventral surface of the body is trans- 

 parent and colourless ; the first dorsal fin has in the male a central black patch, 

 and in the female a central, black, white-edged ocellus. 



Total length 5 inches. 



Numerous specimens, from off the Ganjam coast, 98 to 102 fathoms, and 

 from off the Malabar coast 100 fathoms. 

 Regd. Nos. 12740 et >ieq., 111^, 



In this species the secondary sexual characters are developed in the female, 

 not the male. 

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