Indian Deep-nea Dredging, 19 



Subgradc B. C(ELOMATA. 



Phylum VERTEBRATA. 



Class PISCES. 



By A. Alcock. 



The deep-sea fishes collected during the season number 

 fifty species, of which twenty are new to science, while eight 

 more have not before been recorded from India. 



Among genera not typically bathybial hitherto unrecorded 

 from Indian seas it is interesting to find Callorhynchusl^ 

 Dibrnnchus^ PeristethuSj Physiculus^ Ateleopus, and Neosco- 

 pelus. 



Among bathybial genera we have to record for the first 

 time Argyropelecus^ Alepocephalus, and Nettastoma. 



The forms, five in number, which do not fall into any 

 hitherto described genera are sufficiently important to require 

 a separate notice. 



1. Mahhopsis is a Pediculate from the Andaman Sea very 

 similar in general appearance and morphology to Malthe from 

 the American side of the Atlantic, but differing from it in 

 possessing only two pairs of gills. 



2. Halicmetus is a still more remarkable Pediculate from 

 the Andaman Sea. It is closely allied to Dihranchus and 

 Malthopsis, but both dorsal fins are entirely wanting and the 

 anal fin is rudimentary. 



3. Another most remarkable type is Lamprogrammus^ an 

 Ophidiid very closely approximate to the Brotuline type, but 

 separated off from it in having no ventral fins, and differing 

 from all other Ophidiids in the structure of the lateral line, 

 which resembles in appearance that of the Halosauridae. 

 That is to say, the scales of the lateral line are much enlarged, 

 and each one is excavated for the reception of a glandular 

 substance, which is probably luminous in function. 



4. Bathyclupea is another extremely interesting form, which 

 I have placed among the Physostomi and in the family 

 Clupeidffi, though it differs from all the Physostomes in 

 having the ventral fins, which are rudimentary, subjugular in 

 position, and is unlike other Clupeoids in possessing few 

 pyloric appendages and in having the upper jaw but indis- 

 tinctly tripartite. I have carefully dissected this form, and 

 have little doubt about its afiinities, though I am not certain 

 whether it should be placed apart in a new subfamily of the 



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