Indian Deep-sea Fishes. 155 



organ, which it lines. The intestine is much coiled, and 

 there are no pyloric caica. 



The copulatoiy organ of the male is massive, and is almost 

 as long as the snout; it is hollow and lined by the peri- 

 toneum ; the intestine opens at its base, and the testes are 

 prolonged far into it; its free end has almost the consistence 

 of cartilage, and is thrown into deep and intricate folds, from 

 the innermost (anterior) of which a pair of tactile papillae, one 

 of which is of large size, project, the testes opening by a 

 common orifice into the bottom of the outer (posterior) fold. 



The corresponding organ of the female is smaller than that 

 of the male, but still is large ; it is a hollow cone lined by 

 peritoneum and containing the ends of the ovaries, which 

 have a common orifice of large size at its free end, which is 

 spongy. 



Two males and a female with ripe ova, from the Andaman 

 Sea, 405 fath. (1897). 



The largest male is nearly 7 inches long, the female not 

 quite 6 inches. 



This species is at once distinguished from D. brachysoma, 

 Gthr., and D. Rivers- Andersoni, mihi, by the broad frog-like 

 head and snout ; in those species the occiput is high and the 

 snout is much depressed, with an upturned tip, but in this 



Male orgau of Diplacanthopoma raniceps, x 4. 



species the head is broadly conical and gently and evenly 

 declivous from occiput to tip of snout. Another difference is 

 that in this species the two spines of the operculum are hidden 

 beneath the skin, whereas in both the other species they are 

 very sharply prominent. 



From J). Rivers- A ndersoni this species also differs in its 

 much smaller size. 



