Indian Deep-sea Dredging. 27 



Colours in life : — Pinkish yellow ; some specimens with a 

 few irregular rings of dark chocolate on the dorsum of the 

 cephalic disk. 



There are five abdominal and thirteen caudal vertebrse, the 

 neural spines of the former being coalescent into a trenchant 

 ridge as in Malthe and Halieutcea. 



Ten specimens were taken at Station 115, in 188 to 220 

 fathoms. Thej vary in length from 1*4 to 2*9 inciies ; and 

 in the younger specimens the subopercular spine is relatively 

 much larger and the pectoral fins are of greater relative lengtli 

 — being contained '6\ times in the total length, caudal 

 included. 



Halicmetus, gen. nov. 



Head and anterior part of body very broad and depressed. 

 Front with a transverse bony bridge and a subrostral cavity 

 lodging a fleshy tentacle. Cleft of mouth horizontal. Villi- 

 form teeth in jaws and palatines. Gill-openings small fora- 

 mina situated superiorly in the axilla ; two gills ; no pseudo- 

 brancliiai. Head and body with close- set graniform asperities 

 and large granular tubercles. No dorsal fin whatever. Anal 

 fin very short. Pyloric appendages and air-bladder absent. 



12. Halicmetus ruher^ sp. n. (PI. VIII. figs. 1, la, 1 Z>.) 

 B. 5? D. 0. A. 3. C. 9. P. 11. V. 1/5. 



Head and anterior part of trunk depressed, forming a semi- 

 circular disk rather broader than long, with a slight con- 

 vexity in the cranial region. The truncated snout is occupied, 

 as in IlalieuUca, by a bony rugose orbital bridge, beneath 

 which is a cavity lodging a fleshy tentacle wliicii ends in 

 three lobes, the middle (superior) lobe being crested by a 

 small bifid filament. The eyes are small and convergent. 



The nostrils are minute papillae situated on each side of the 

 rostral tentacle, within the subrostral cavity. 



Mouth horizontal, with the lower jaw slightly projecting ; 

 its cleft is a little wider than the eye. Villiform teeth in 

 bands in the jaws and on the palatines. 



Gill-cleft a small foramen, less than half an eye-diameter 

 in width, situated suj)eriorly in the axilla; two gills; no 

 pseudobranchiai. The suboperculum ends in a stout multifid 

 spine. 



Surface of the body uniformly invested with minute close- 

 set graniform spines, which also cover the eyes up to the 



