Holt and Calderwood — Report on the Rarer Fishes. 



409 



Scorpaena dactyloptera, Delaroche. (Deep-sea.) 

 (PI. XLII., fig. 1.) 



Scorpcena dactyloptera, 



>j 



j> 



5> 

 >5 



jj 



Sebastes dactylopterus, 





Sebastes imperialism 



5> 



J) 



Sebastes norvegicus, 



Delaroche, "Ann. Mus.," xiii.., pi. 22, fig. 2, 

 Risso, "Ichth. Nice," p. 186; and "Faun. Eur. 



M^rid," iii., p. 369. 

 GiJNTHER, " Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist.," 1889, p. 417. 

 Holt, " Sci. Proc. Roy. Dub. Soc," vii., pp. 121 



and 219. 

 Eagle Clarke, " Naturalist," 1893, p. 81. 

 Holt, "Jour. M. B. Assoc," 1893, 121. 

 GuNTHER, " Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus.," ii., p. 99. 

 Vaillant, " Exp. Sci. 'Talis.' ' Trav.' Poiss.," p. 368. 

 ScHAEFF, "Proc. R. I. Acad.," 1891, p. 456. 

 Collett, " Norg. Fish," p. 19. 

 Lilljeborg, " Sver. o. Norg. Fisk.," i., p. 107. 

 Cuvier & Valenciennes, iv., p. 336. 

 Lowe, " Trans. Zool. Soc. L.," ii., p. 175. 

 Scharff, " Cat. Fish. Mus. Dub.," 1889, p. 26. 



Diagnosis of Species (D. i. 11-12; D. ii. 1/ 12-13 A. 3/5).— The height of 

 the body 3|-, the length of the head nearly 3|, of the total length. The 

 inter-orbital space deeply concave, with two naked bony ridges ; its width about 

 one-ninth of the length of the head. Jaws sub-equal, the upper extending behind 

 a vertical line from the centre of the eye. Tongue distinctly free anteriorly. 

 Five spines on the pre-operculum. Pectoral fin with the seven inferior rays 

 thickened, and semi- separate in adults; three to seven pyloric appendages: 

 twenty-four or twenty-five vertebrae.* Colours red, banded with dark-red ; or 

 spotted or banded with dark-brown ; abdomen pale ; pharynx black. 



The species has been repeatedly confused with Sebastes norvegiciis, and for pur- 

 poses of comparison we have given (PI. xlii., figs. 1 and 2) an outline drawing of 

 the head of Sebastes norvegiciis, as well as a figure of the species now under consi- 

 deration. The superior angle of the gill cover is rounded in Scorpmna dactyloptera, 



* Mr. Sim, of Aberdeen, writing of this species under the name of Sebastes norvegicus (" Ann. Scot. 

 Nat. Hist.," 1893, p. 47), gives the number of vertebrae as 25 to 26. One of the Survey specimens has 

 25, Giinther's Catalogue gives the number as 24, and, in remodelling the genera of Sebastes and Scorpsena, 

 this author gives 24 vertebrae as the maximum in the latter. Since, however, S. dactyloptera is included 

 in that genus, we have raised the maximum number to 25 (or 26 ?). 



TRAUS. EOT. DUB. soc, N.S. VOL. V., PART IX. 3N 



