of the Bay of Bengal tDc. 383 



Brephostoma, gen. no v. 



Soft tissues, except the dermal productions, rather delicate. 

 Plead large, quite unarmed. Bodj low, rather elongate, with 

 large ctenoid scales. Mouth small, oblique, weak. Teeth 

 entirely absent. Eyes large, lateral. Two dorsal fins, the 

 spinous the less developed ; anal similar to the soft dorsal ; 

 ventrals thoracic, with one spine and five rays. Gill-opening 

 very wide; seven branchiostegals ; pseudobranchite. No anal 

 papilla. No air-bladder. Long pyloric cfBca, in moderate 

 number. 



Brephostoma Carpenteri, sp. nov. 

 B. 7. D. 5/iV. A. i. L. lat. 30. L. tr. 12. 



Soft tissues, except the dermal productions, rather delicate. 

 Body low, rather elongate and compressed, gently diminishing 

 from the shoulder to the base of the caudal. Head pyramidal, 

 entirely unarmed ; cranial bones, but not the other head- 

 bones, firm. Snout short, broad, depressed, wedge-like, barely 

 two thirds of the diameter of the eye in length. Eyes lateral, 

 large, circular, their diameter more than one third the length 

 of the head. Supraorbital margin in the dorsal profile. Pre- 

 orbital a broad triangular plate, almost overlapping the closed 

 mouth. 



Infraorbitals apparently not articulating with the preoper- 

 culum. Nostrils small. Mouth lateral, small, its cleft 

 oblique, barely reaching to the level of the anterior border of 

 the orbit. Jaws weak, edentulous, but with semicartilaginous 

 cutting-edges, that of the lower jaw the more prominent and 

 ending just inside the angle of the mouth in an oval plate. 

 The lower jaw closes inside the upper, except anteriorly, where 

 it projects slightly ; its rami are so broad that their lower 

 edges are in contact with each other through the greater part 

 of their extent. Vomer and palatines edentulous. Tongue 

 free, smooth. Floor of the mouth black. No barbels. Gill- 

 cover complete, its constituent bones almost membranous and 

 quite unarmed ; the preoperculum with a double edge. Seven 

 branchiostegals. Gill-openings very wide, the gill-membranes 

 entirely separate. Four gills, with well-developed laminse. 

 Four gill-clefts. Large pseudobranchias. Gill-rakers of the 

 outside of the first arch numerous, close-set, and long, else- 

 where very short. Gill-chamber black. 



The entire head and body covered with strong, thick, oblong, 

 adherent, imbricating, ctenoid plates, those on the body from 

 t\ to 1 inch in their major diameter, those on the opercles and 



27* 



