154 Air. A. Alcock on 



ANACANTHINI. 



Family Ophidiidse. 



DiPLACANTHOPOMA, Giinther. 



Diplacantkopoma raniceps, sp. n. 



B. 8. D. circ. 110. A. circ. 75. V. 1. L. lat. circ. 74. 



The tail (excluding the long tapering caudal fin) is not 

 quite half the total length, and the length of the head is equal 

 to that of the rest of the trunk ; the height of the body is 

 contained about 4| times in the total, without the caudal. 



The head (including the branchiostegal rays and a large 

 part of the isthmus, but excluding the occiput) and the greater 

 part of the bases of the dorsal and caudal fins are invested in 

 a thick, glandular, scaleless skin ; the head is unarmed, except 

 for two spines, one at the upper, the other at the lower angle 

 of the operculum ; these, however, hardly project through 

 the thick loose skin; it is depressed and is very broad, its 

 breadth being considerably more than the length of its post- 

 ocular portion. 



The snout is singularly broad, about twice as broad as 

 long, and this, with the broad flat head, gives a very frog- 

 like appearance. The eyes are subcutaneous, large, their 

 major diameter being about two ninths the length of the head, 

 and a good deal more than a diameter apart. Although the 

 mouth is large, the maxilla hardly reaches to the hinder level 

 of the eye, and is much less than half the length of the head. 

 Villiform teeth in bauds in the jaws, palatines, and vomer, 

 the band on the premaxilla (only) being interrupted at the 

 symphysis. 



Gill-openings extremely wide, the branchiostegal mem- 

 branes being quite free ; gill-rakers short, except for three on 

 the outer border of the first arch ; no pseudobranchiaj. 



Body covered with small deciduous scales ; the lateral line 

 is extremely inconspicuous, and is apparently present only in 

 the anterior part of the body. 



The dorsal fin begins immediately above the base of the 

 pectoral; it and the anal are confluent with the caudal, which 

 is almost as long as the post-rostral portion of the head and a 

 little longer than the pointed pectorals. The ventrals are a 

 little more than half the length of t\\e head, each consists of 

 at least two intimately fused rays. 



The peritoneum in the male is very thick, and is as tough 

 as a piece of leather, to strengthen and support the copulatory 



