Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2481 



head, slightly less than distance between slits. Pectorals long and slen- 

 der, reaching halfway to vent, \\ in head ; dorsal and anal confluent with 

 the caudal, concealed in the thick integument, so that the rays can not be 

 counted. Color in spirits, light brownish, the dorsal and pectorals whit- 

 ish, the anal with a dark margin which becomes black posteriorly ; lips 

 dusky; abdominal region blue black. Coast of British Columbia. A 

 single specimen, 4| inches long, dredged off Queen Charlotte Island. 

 (Gilbert.) (dA.7tidK)r6$, scaleless.) 



Derepodichthys alepidotus, GILBERT, Kept. U. S. Fish Comm. 1893 (1896), 456, Queen Char- 

 lotte Island, at Albatross Station 3342, in 1,588 fathoms. 



Family CCVIII. OPHIDIHLE. 

 (THE CUSK EELS.) 



Body elongate, compressed, more or less eel-shaped, usually covered 

 with very small scales, which are not imbricated, but placed in oblique 

 series at right angles with each other; head large, lower jaw included; 

 both jaws, and usually vomer and palatines also, with villiform or cardi- 

 forni teeth ; premaxillaries protractile ; gill openings very wide, the gill 

 membranes separate, anteriorly narrowly joined to the isthmus behind 

 the ventrals; pseudobranchije small. Gills 4, a slit behind the fourth; 

 vent more or less posterior. Vertical fins low, without spines, confluent 

 around the tail ; tail isocercal ; ventral fins at the throat, each developed 

 as a long, forked barbel. Air bladder and pyloric caeca present. To this 

 Dr. Gill adds the following characters, shared more or less by related 

 families: " Orbito-rostral portion of cranium contracted and shorter than 

 the posterior, the cranial cavity closed in part by the expansion and junc- 

 tion of the parasphenoid and frontals, the supraoccipital horizontal and 

 cari inform posteriorly, the exoccipitals expanded backward and upward 

 behind the supraoccipital, the exoccipital condyles contiguous, and with 

 the hypercoracoid (scapula, Parker) fenestrate (or foraminate) about its 

 center, and the hypercoracoid with its inferior process divergent from the 

 proscapula." Genera 7, species about 25. Carnivorous fishes; found in 

 most warm seas, some of them descending to considerable depths, the 

 group especially well represented in tropical America. (Ophidiidce, group 

 Ophidiina, Giinther, Cat., iv, 376-380, 1862.) 



a. Head scaly, at least above; body covered with scales imbricated in quincunx; snout 

 usually with a spine at tip ; opercle with or without spinous tip ; air bladder, so 

 far as known, ovate, without posterior foramen. LEPOPHIDIUM, 946. 



aa. Head scaleless ; scales of body rudimentary, scarcely embedded. 



b. Air bladder oblong-ovate, not contracted behind, and without posterior foramen. 



c. Opercle ending in a flat point behind, without spine. OPHIDION, 947. 

 cc. Opercle ending behind in a strong spine concealed in the skin. 



CHIIARA, 948. 

 Ib. Air bladder short, thick, reniform or orbicular, with a large foramen behind. 



d. Opercle ending in a flat point, without spine. RlSBOLA, 949. 

 dd. Opercle ending behind in a spine concealed in the skin. 



OTOPHIDIUM, 950. 



