58 THE VOYAGE OF H.M.S. CHALLENGER. 



Chaunax, Lowe. 



Head very large, depressed; cleft of the mouth wide, subvertical. Skin covered 

 with minute spines. Jaws and palate armed with bands of small teeth. The spinous 

 dorsal fin is reduced to a short spine above the snout. The soft dorsal of moderate 

 length, anal short ; ventrals developed. Gills two and a half ; pseudobranchise 



none. 



The fourth branchial arch does not bear a gill, but its integument is dilated, and 

 forms a broad fold aloug its convex margin. The dorsal spine with the terminal tentacle 

 can be entirely received into the grove behind it ; the tentacle is fleshy, double-heart- 

 shaped, and covered with delicate filaments of a white colour. 



Chaunax pictus (PL X. fig. A). 



Chaunax p ictus, Lowe, Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond., vol. iii. p. 339, pi. li. 

 „ Guntk, Fish., iii. p. 200. 



Goode, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., vol. iii., 1881, p. 470. 

 ,, Jimhriatus, Hilgendorf, Sitzungsb. Gesellscb. naturf. Freunde, 1879, p. 80. 

 ,, ,, Steindacliner und Doderlein, Denksclir. d. k. Akad. d. Wiss. Wien, xlix., 



1884, p. 194. 



The specimens of this fish have been obtained at very distant localities. It was first 

 discovered at Madeira by Mr. Lowe and subsequently by Mr. Johnson. A single specimen 

 forms part of the Challenger collection, and was obtained near the Fiji Islands, at Station 

 173, from a depth of 315 fathoms. Hilgendorf and Doderlein record its existence in 

 the Sea of Japan, considering the specimens to be a distinct species ( Chaunax Jimhri- 

 atus). Finally the U.S. steamer "Fish Hawk" obtained a single small sj)ecimen on the 

 south coast of New England in 192 fathoms. 



All these specimens I consider to belong to one and the same species. The specimen 

 from the Fiji Islands differs only in the colour of the rostral tentacle and of the grove into 

 which it is received ; these parts are black in the Atlantic specimens, and of the ^ame 

 colour as the body in the Fiji Island example. The latter has, in common with the 

 Japanese specimen, the lower parts of the muciferous ducts fimbriated with very delicate 

 and short tentacles, of which only a few are to be observed in Madeiran sjjecimens. With 

 regard to other characters on which the Japanese species was separated, I have to observe 

 that seven anal rays and round yellow spots occur also in Atlantic specimens, and that 

 the width of the interorbital sjjace is equal to two diameters of the eye, if the soft prickly 

 non-transparent skin aliove the eye be taken as part of the interorbital space. 



Habitat. — Off Matuku, Fiji Islands, Station 173; depth, 315 fathoms. One specimen 

 7f inches long. 



