103 



The male is furnished with a penis that consists of a large bilobed papilla 

 with a pore, or genital opening, between the lobes. Sometimes there is also a 

 long filament between the lobes. 



The female is viviparous as in B. Rivers-Andersoni. 



Hephthocara, Alcock. 



• Hephthocara, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1892, p. 349. 



Body elongate, compressed, tail tapering to a filament, covered with small 

 thin deciduous slightly imbricate scales. Head large and broad, covered with 

 a thick gelatinous scaleless skin ; its bones thin. 



Lateral line indistinguishable. 



Snout broad, depressed, not overhanging the jaws ; without barbels. 

 Mouth wide, with oblique cleft ; the lower jaw slightly prominent. Villi- 

 form teeth in the jaws and palatines and in a crescent on the vomer. 



Eye of moderate size. 



Gill-openings wide : operculum with two feeble radiating ridges, the upper 

 of which ends in a spine. Eight branchiostegals. No pseudobranchige. 



Dorsal and anal fins confluent with the caudal. 



No ventral fins. 



Air-bladder present. No pyloric CEeca. 



The only known species is viviparous. 



Hephthocara differs from Diplacanthopoma, to which it is very closely 

 related, in the absence of ventral fins and in having a long lash-like tail. 



81. Hephthocara simum, Alcock. 



Hephthocara simum, Alcock, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., Nov. 1892, p. 349, PL. xviii. fig. 1 : Illustrations of thb 

 Zoology of the Investigator, Fishks, pl. XXII. fig. 3. ^ 



Head large, deep, broad, much inflated posteriorly ; its length is from 4 to 

 5 in the total ; its greatest height, which is more than the greatest height of the 

 body, is nearly equal to its length ; its bones are wafer-like and smooth ; its 

 integument is smooth and scaleless and, in life, forms a thick mucous cap of 

 gelatinous consistence. 



The small snub snout, the end of which is formed by the projecting man- 

 dible, is equal in length to the width of the interocular space, this being rather 

 more than twice the major diameter of the deep-set eye, which again is 

 about one-seventh the length of the head. The nostrils arc inconspicuous and 

 are situated one in front of the angle of the eye, the other at the tip of the snout. 



Mouth large, with its cleft oblique, and with the mandible projecting beyond 

 the thin broad maxilla, which last is a little more than half as long as the head. 



