452 Mr. A. Alcock on the Bathybial 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 rear 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 34 inches. 
Hab. Gulf of Manaar, lat. 6° 29! N., long. 79° 34’ E., 
597 fathoms. 
MALACOSsTEuSs, Ayres. 
Malacosteus indicus, Gthr. 
Malacosteus indicus, Giinther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, vol. ii. 
p. 181; Zool. Chall. Exp. vol. xxii. p. 214, pl. liv. fig. B. 
Hab. Andaman Sea, off Cinque Island, 650 fathoms. 
Family Alepocephalide. 
Batuytrocres, Gthr. 
Bathytroctes microlepis, (sthr. 
Bathytroctes microlepts, Giinther, Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, vol. it. 
p. 249; Zool. Chall. Exp. vol. xxii. pp. 226, 227, pl. lvii. fig. A. 
