580 



ANNUAL EEPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



The Oneirodines scarcely differ from the Ceratiines and are such 

 fishes as have the mouth less oblique or nearly horizontal and the skin 

 smooth. They have one cephalic bulbiferous spine and one post- 



FiG. 16. — A degenerate Ceratiid (Dolopivhthyn allfctor). After Garman. 



cephalic spine. The typical representative of the group is the 

 Oneirodes eschricMii of Greenland. Another example is the Paro- 

 neirodes glomeromis of the Bay of Bengal. 



Another relation of the Ceratiines but differing so much from the 

 recognized members of the subfamily 

 as to be entitled, perhaps, to distinc- 

 tion as a subfamily type {Dolopich- 

 thyines) is the Dolopichthys allector 

 of Garman. The head is much en- 

 larged, the mouth nearly or quite 

 horizontal, and the body behind 

 (cauditrunk) singularly attenuated; 

 the fins are much reduced in size and 

 more or less enveloped in the loose 

 skin which invests the body. 



The Himantolophines and Mgddo- 

 nichthyines agree in having a mod- 

 erately cleft mouth (in comparison 

 with other forms of the family), 

 osseous scutellse scattered over the 

 body, 2 pairs of gills and half gills 

 on first and fourth arches (|, 2, ^), 

 and a frontal spine with a bulb sur- 

 rounded or surmounted by filaments. 

 The rays of the best known forms are 

 dorsal 5 (four forked), anal 4 (third and fourth at least forked) and 

 caudal 8 (all except uppermost forked) , but the first described species 

 {Himcmtoloj^hus grcvrdandicus) was claimed to have 9 dorsal rays; 



Fig. 17. — Tbe illicium or dorso-rostral 

 spine of Dolopa ceratiid (Dolopich- 

 thys). After Garman. 



