550 °*BULLETIN 100, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
oral length is one-third the postorbital. There are no enlarged 
median nor lateral rostral tubercles. The large orbit is slightly 
oval in outline; its length, greater than that of the snout, is con- 
tained 3.22 (2.9 to 3.4 in 14 paratypes) times in the head, 1.4 times 
in the postorbital. The least width of the flat interorbital space is 
contained 1.2 times in the orbit, or 1.8 times in the postorbital; the 
interorbital is narrower than in the closely related Japanese species, 
as the following figures indicate : 
Table to show least width of interorbital space in hundredths of length to anus. 
| 
Vi ganmant: 20) 2 fea ee ee ee oa eee aes a} 2 4 4 | 8 2 1 
Ve, divergenss esis ee a 1 | ii aia tices Bae |e | 
The ridge and the margin of the preopercle extend downward and 
backward, but are not sharply produced backward behind their gen- 
eral courses at their angle. The suborbital width is narrower than 
the pupil. The mouth is very large and a little oblique; the length 
of the upper jaw, which extends backward a little farther than the 
orbit, is contained 2.3 times in the head. The rather coarse teeth 
are arranged in narrow bands on the jaws; the outer premaxillary 
series is enlarged. The barbel is long and slender, being nearly as 
long as the snout in the type, but usually decidedly longer in the 
paratypes; its free length is contained about four times * in the head, 
but varies in the paratypes as indicated in the following table: 
Table showing the length of the barbel in V. divergens as measured into the 
head. 
Kiencth of” barbel=-==— 2:8" 2:9) "3/023ae 3:2) Bid) (et op). 0) onl) Db Olona 
Number Of Specimens! =275) ody eee Om eena cael Ss al! oll eal 
The sensory canal system of the head is well developed, much as 
in Hymenocephalus, but the membranous roofs over the canals are 
thicker and are covered by firm scales, and the bony septa supporting 
these membranes are stronger. The branchial aperture is extended 
forward to below the hind margin of the orbit. The 13 to 15 short, 
spinous gill-rakers are better developed than usual in the Coryphaen- 
oidinhe, but are not so numerous as usual in the species of Hymen- 
ocephalus. Seven branchiostegals. 
The scales, which are beset with numerous fine spinules arranged 
in quincunx order, are more numerous than in V. gavmani, which 
1 Possibly when shortest the barbel has been injured some time during the life of the 
individual. © 
