696 BULLETIN OF THE TINITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 



latter being occupied by a tliiii fleshy lamina; no functional tilaments on fourth arch, a short aillierent 

 crescentric lamina sometiiues i)ret'ent, seeming to represent the ot)Solete gill, its margins with divisions 

 faintly indicated; disk compaiatively narrow, with rounded outlines; lateral j)rocess projecting but 

 little, armed with a short strong spinous point directed forwanl and a shorter one turned backward; 

 dorsal surface of disk, and entire tail, covered with large and small tuliercular plates, arranged nuich 

 as in M. /itifrii/cni, but less numerous and much less prominent; lower surface of disk almost naked, 

 containing only a few scattered rudimentary plates, without definite arrangement, except for the usual 

 presence of one in middle of breast; a single series of 4 or 5 small plates crosses eye above pupil. 



When Ijent outward and forward, the pectorals extend well Ijeyond tip of subopercular spine; 

 ventrals widening toward tip, their inner (posterior) rays the longer, not reaching margin of disk wlu-n 

 extended; caudal half length of head. 



Color, upper parts covered with a tine reticulum of daik lines over a grayish or light brownisli 

 ground; 2 or 3 irregular dark blotches on margin of <lisk, a pair on nape, an irregular lengthwise 

 blotch aliove and behind gill-opening, an irregular bar below dorsal, (jue on middle of caudal 

 peduncle, and a narrow one at base of caudal; a transverse dark l)ar crosses caudal belnnd its middle, 

 and an intramarginal liar crosses pectoral. Specimens taken from the white coral sand in the vicinity 

 of Laysan Island are nearly uniform white in color, the smallest individual, .'50 mm. long, having 

 middle of disk marked by numerous small bright white spots, on a ilusky gri>und; faint traces of the 

 reticulum can be distinguished on the palest si)ecimens. 



In the cotypes, the dorsal rays vary from 5 to 6, the pectorals from 12 to bi. The anal rays seem 

 to be invariably 4. 



MaUhojmx jordiini is closely related to ^[. vtitrigeni and to M. luten. Alcock (Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., 

 (6), VIII, 1891, 26, ]il. 8, figs. 2, 2a), all of them with comparatively narrow triangular disk and narrow 

 interorbital space, the body coveivd with coarse tubercular plates. The species descrilied by (iarman 

 from the Mexican and t'entral American province have wider disks, with the lateral spine directed 

 liackward, or oVisolete, the interorliital sjiace wider and more dejiresscd, and the investment of body 

 largely in form of jirickles. 



The species was taken at the following stations: Nos. 3S.5.S, off the south coast of Molokai, 11.t to 

 134 fathom.s; 38.59, Pailolo Cliannel, 138 to 140 fathoms; .3938, vicinity of Laysan, 148 to 103 fathoms; 

 3965, vicinity of Laysan, 116 to 147 fathoms; 4079, off the north coast of Maui, 143 to 17S fathoms; 

 4101. Pailolo Channel, 122 to 143 fathoms; 4102, Pailolo C:hannel, 122 to 132 fathoms. 



Halieutsea retifera, new species. Pl.ate 101. 



Type, 101 mm. long, from station 4071!, off the north coast of Maui, dejith .')7 to 68 fathoms; type. 

 No. ,'')1.'J97, U. S. Nat. Mus. 



Length of disk (excluding jiectoral base) 70 himdredths of total length to base of caudal; width of 

 disk 81; length of caudal jieduncle, from vent, 34; greatest width of caudal peduncle 16; diameter of 

 orliit 12; least interorbital width 7.5; width of mouth, measurcMl between tips of maxillaries 33; length 

 of caudal 29; longest pectoral ray 25; longest ventral ray 18. I). 5; A. 4; P. 14; V. i, 5. 



Disk subcircular, broader than long, its width equal to distance from tip of snout ti> end of 

 declined dorsal rays; head and snout not protruding at all beyond the regularly curved contour, and 

 the carpus not exserted; snout and orbi till rims a little elevated; eyes directed laterally; interorbital 

 space concave, bounded laterally by orbital rims, anteriorly by a transverse ridge which sei)arates it 

 from the nasal fos.s^e and the tentaiadar cavity; anterior nostril small, with a short tube; posterior a 

 large circular fipening without tube or refiexeil rims; lure trilobate, with a superior medial and a pair 

 of hemispherical lateral lobes, the latter fringed lielow an<l separated medially by a deeji cleft; teeth 

 minute, in rather wide bands in both jaws, nearly reaching corners of mouth; vomer and palatine 

 bones without teeth; tongue very little developed, without free tip, and toothless, broad patches of the 

 lower pliaryngeals seeming to occupy its posterior portion; gill-openings small pores, wholly on ui)per 

 surface of disk, well in advance of its jiosterior margin; gills 2.',, the anterior arch with filaments, the 

 posterior with a well-developeil series of lilamcnts. but witliout a slit; branchiostegal rays 6; no 

 paeu<lobrancbi;e. 



Hpper surfaces thickly lu'set by minute spines, the basal portion of which presents usually a 

 trirailiatc arrangement of ridges; a few .somewhat larger, but similar, spines scattered without definite 

 arrangement among the smaller ones; lateral margins of disk dejire.ssed to a sharp edge, and occupied 

 by a tiriidv united series of plates, each of which bears a marginal cluster of spines corresponding to 



