584 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



The Melanocetines have, even for the family, an enormous and 

 very deeply cleft mouth, the cleft nearly vertical, the skin smooth, 

 and the gills developed as two complete and the last a half (2, -l). 



Several genera are known, 

 the first discovered and 

 the richest in species be- 

 ing Melanocetus. The 

 typical sj)ecies is the 

 Melanocetus Johnsonii 

 first found off the island 

 of Madeira. A fish later 

 found in the Caribbean 

 Sea east of the Central 

 American coast (lat. 13° 

 or 30" N., long. 81° 25' 

 W.) at a depth of 992 

 fathoms, was identified by 

 Goode and Bean (prob- 

 ably erroneously) with it ; 

 their figure (evidently of 

 a distorted individual) is 

 here reproduced. An- 

 other species illustrated 

 (3Ielanocetus krechi) "was 

 obtained in the Indian 

 Ocean off the coast of 

 Zanzibar at a depth of 

 2,500 meters. 



Another representative 

 of the Melanocetinine 

 Ceratiids was obtained by 

 the Challenger Expedi- 

 tion in the mid-Atlantic 

 at a depth of 1,850 fath- 

 oms and has been named 

 Liocetus Murrayi; it dif- 

 fers from Melanocetus 

 chiefly in the absence of 

 vomerine teeth. A speci- 

 men was dredged later 

 nearer the American 

 coast from a depth of 

 2,450 fathoms. 



As may be inferred from the size of the mouth and teeth, the 

 Melanocetines are ravenous raptorial fishes which may sometimes 

 seize and ingest fishes much larger than themselves. For instance, 



