594 



ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1908. 



clared to be, along the " coast of Japan, not very common," but never- 

 theless dried specimens, 2 or 3 inches long, may be occasionally 

 found in the boxes of shells and other animal curiosities exported by 

 Chinese. A distinctive name has been given by Japanese fishermen — 

 Akogutsu, meaning "red shoe." The genus is distinguished by the 

 combination of a toothless palate and the development of a half- 

 gill on the fourth branchial arch (2, ^). Other species of the genus 



are the Halieutma coc- 

 cinea, li. nigra, and II. 

 gardineri of the Indian 

 Ocean, found at depths 

 of 123 to 265 fathoms. 

 The Halieutine, next 

 to the Ilalieutcea stel- 

 lata longest known, is 

 the Halieutichthys acu- 

 leatus, first imperfectly 

 described as a Lophius 

 in 1818 by Mitchill, but 

 not adequately made 

 known till 1863. It is 

 also one of the most 

 common and least ba- 

 thyphilous species of its 

 group. It has been or 

 may be found in almost 

 any place with a fitting 

 bottom in the Gulf of 

 Mexico or Caribbean 

 Sea or along the coast 

 of Florida at any depth 

 from 9 to 95 fathoms. 

 The color is more varied 

 than in most of the Ha- 

 lieutines. According to 

 Goode and Bean, the body is " covered above with reticulations 

 of brown, the general hue varying from light yellowish gray to 

 grayish brown, the markings being darker upon darker specimens; 

 pectoral and caudal fins with about three dark bars; the terminal 

 bars in young very black; body beneath, milky white." The palatines 

 as well as the vomer are provided with teeth ; the gills are reduced to 

 the perfect ones of the second and third branchial arches. The disk 

 is subcircular or ovate. 



Pig. 37. — Halieutichthys aculeatus. Views from above 

 and below. After Goode and Bean. 



