2514 Bulletin ^7, United States National Museum. 



rupted by the eye, and extending backward! distance to tail; another 

 beginning on the snout, extending over eye and back as far as first 

 described, interrupted posteriorly; dorsal fin milky white at base in its 

 anterior third ; above this a blackish band extending whole length of fin ; 

 a narrow white margin above. The type is from Blake Station LXXIX, 

 off Barbados, in 209 fathoms, (marginatus, edged.) 



Neobythites marginatus, GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., x, No. 5,162, 1883 off Bar- 

 bados, in 209 fathoms (Coll. Blake) ; GOODE &. BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 326, fig. 

 290, 1896. 



964. BENTHOCOMETES, Goode &. Bean. 



Benthocometes, GOODE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthyology, 327, 1896 (robustus). 



Brotulids, similar in appearance and structure to Neobythites and Basso- 

 gigas, distinguished by 2 short flat spines upon the anterior portion of the 

 operculum, placed at some distance from each other, and by the absence 

 of spines on the preoperculum. The lateral line is complete, and extends 

 without interruption to the posterior fourth of the body, where it becomes 

 obsolete. The vomerine teeth are bunched in a circular patch instead of 

 being arranged in triangular form. The head is comparatively short, with 

 the jaws in front nearly equal; the snout not produced, but obtuse, 

 rounded, and almost declivous in its outline. Deep sea. Two species 

 known. (fisrQo$, the depths; XGojuiyrifS, inhabitant.) 



2886. BEXTHOCOMETES BOBUSTUS, Goode &. Bean. 



Body rather short and deep, its greatest height nearly 4f in total length 

 and about equal to length of head ; interorbital area convex, its width 

 greater than diameter of the circular eye, and 1| times length of snout ; head 

 about 4 times diameter of eye ; mouth moderate, the maxillary extending 

 to vertical through posterior margin of eye, the mandible a little beyond, 

 its length equal to that of postorbital part of head. Teeth in villiform 

 bands in jaws and on palatines; vomerine teeth bunched in a circular 

 patch. Gill rakers moderate, the longest a little more than twice in 

 diameter of eye, 4 above angle of first arch, 11 below. Pseu dob ranch ia> 

 rudimentary. Gill opening wide, the membrane deeply cleft behind, free 

 from the isthmus. A pair of short flat spines upon the anterior portion 

 of the operculum. Xostrils small, the anterior as close to the snout 

 as the posterior ones are to the eyes; no apparent cirri. Scales mi- 

 nute; lateral line obsolete on the last fourth of body. Dorsal origin 

 behind that of ventral and pectoral, its distance from snout 3 times in 

 body; height of dorsal fin moderate, the longest ray about 3 times in 

 head; anal origin under eighteenth ray of dorsal, the height of fin 

 about equaling that of dorsal; vertical fins not connate with the caudal, 

 which consists of 12 or 13 very slender rays, its length nearly equal to 

 head ; pectoral with a broad base, close to gill opening, its length nearly 

 that of head; ventral a single bifid ray, inserted in advance of vertical 

 through ba.se of pectorals, and not far from humeral syraphysis, reaching 

 nearly halfway to vent, the distance of which from the origin of the ven- 



