Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 2525 



973- APHYONUS, Giinther. 



Aphyonus, GONTHER, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. 1878, 22 (gelatinosus) . 



Head, body, and tapering tail strongly compressed, enveloped in a thin, 

 scaleless, loose skin. Vent far behind the pectoral, at nearly the middle 

 of the total length. Snout swollen, projecting beyond the month, which 

 is wide. No teeth in the npper jaw; small conical teeth in the lower, 

 plnriserial in front and uniserial on the side. Vomer with a few rudi- 

 mentary teeth ; palatine teeth none. Nostrils close together, small. No 

 externally visible eye. Barbel none. Ventrals reduced to simple fila- 

 ments, placed close together and near te the humeral symphysis. Gill 

 membranes not united. Four branchial arches, the posterior without gill 

 laminae, the anterior with very short gill rakers and with rather short 

 gill lamime. Head covered with a system of wide muciferous channels and 

 sinuses, the dermal bones being almost inernbranaceous, while the others 

 are in a semicartilaginous condition. Notochord persistent, but with a 

 superficial indication of the vertebral segments, as in some Leptocepha- 

 line forms. (Giinther.) (dfivi?, anchovy, a small translucent fish ; Onus, 

 the rockling.) 



2896. APHYONTJS MOLLIS, Goode & Bean. 



Body much compressed, its greatest height 6 in its total length. Head 

 thicker than body, its height slightly greater. Length of head about 

 4 in total, width over its length. Snout 3 in length of head. Eye 

 not externally visible. Diameter of orbit, as seen through the skin, 

 about i length of head. Maxillary extending to vertical through posterior 

 margin of orbit, the mandible somewhat farther back, its length nearly 

 equal to height of body. A few weak teeth on vomer, palatines, and 

 mandible, and very rudimentary ones in maxillary, not visible to the eye, 

 but appreciable to the touch. Gill laminae on the fourth and rudimentary 

 gill rakers, 8 rudiments and 4 developed below the angle. Dorsal origin 

 almost over posterior edge of operculum, its distance from the snout of 

 total length, dorsal rays more than 110, well developed, the longest 3 in 

 head ; anal origin slightly nearer base of caudal than to the tip of snout, 

 its rays shorter than those in the dorsal ; pectoral with a fleshy base, its 

 origin somewhat behind that of the dorsal, its length equal to width of 

 head; ventral origin in advance of that of pectoral, close to humeral 

 symphysis, the fin a single simple ray, whose length equals that of the 

 pectoral, its tip not reaching vent by a space equal to height of head. 

 Skin not loose. Texture of body rather firm, not transparent; whitish. 

 Gulf of Mexico, in deep water. This species is closely allied to Aphyonus 

 gelatinosus. (Goode & Bean.) (mollis, soft.) 



Aphyonus mollis, GOODE & BEAN, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool., X, No. 5, 163, 1883, Lat. 24 36' 

 N., Long. 84 5' W., in 955 fathoms (Coll. Slake); GOODE & BEAN, Oceanic Ichthy- 

 ology, 342, fig. 299, 1896. 



Family CCXII. BREGMACEROTID^E. 



Body stout, with robust caudal portion, truncate or convex behind, 

 almost without procurrent caudal rays above or below; vent before mid- 



