452 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathyhial Fishes 



eye. Cleft of mouth oblique, enormous ; the limbs of the 

 mandibles widely distensible. Teeth fixed, upwards of 

 twenty-five small, unequal, and curved in each premaxilla, 

 and about the same number, in the form of minute, close-set, 

 down-curved, even serrations, in each maxilla ; a fang on each 

 side of the vomer ; one or two moderate-sized teeth in the 

 palatines. The teeth of the lower jaw are very large, curved 

 and acute, and stand out laterally, eight or nine on each side, 

 almost at right angles outside the mouth. Barbel about as 

 long as the head and ending in three longish filaments. The 

 bony part of the opercle is reduced to a small preoperculum. 

 The surface of the body is covered with a tenacious slime. 

 There are no scales, but the body is mapped with regular 

 rows of hexagonal depressions, each with a minute central 

 white point. Median line of the abdomen, from throat to anal 

 fin, occupied by a salient white line, which is resolved by the 

 lens into a linear cloud of thick-set white specks. On each 

 side of this are two rows of enlarged luminous organs, the 

 inner extending from the isthmus to the base of the caudal 

 and numbering 64 (to base of pectoral 6, to base of ventral 

 40, to origin of anal 49, to base of caudal 64), the outer from 

 the base of the pectoral to the origin of the anal and num- 

 bering 35. The dorsal fin begins in the last fifth of the body, 

 a little in lear of the commencement of the anal, which is 

 also the deeper. Caudal not forked. The pectorals arise on 

 very narrow bases near the ventral profile ; their length is 

 equal to the height of the body. The ventrals are also narrow 

 and are exceedingly prolonged, reaching beyond the origin of 

 the anal. 



Colours in spirit : — Uniform black ; fins and barbel white, 

 with black tips. 



Two specimens, rather mutilated, the longer 3^ inches. 



Hah. Gulf of Manaar, lat. 6° 29' N., long. 79° 34' E., 

 597 fathoms. 



Malacosteus, Ayres. 

 Malacosteus indicuSj Gthr. 

 Malacosteus indicus, Giinther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. IHst. 1878, vol. ii. 



p. 181 ; Zool. Chall. Exp. vol. xxii. p. 214, pi. liv. fig. B. 

 Uah. Andaman Sea, off Cinque Island, 650 fathoms. 



Family AlepocephalidaB. 



Bathytroctes, Gthr. 



Bathytroctes microlepis, ( ithr. 



Bathytrocies microlepis, Giinther, Ann. & Mag. Xat. Hist. 1878, vol. ii. 



p. 249; Zool. Chall. Exp. vol. .xxii. pp. 22H, 227, pi. Ivii. fig. A. 



