Jordan anit Evermann. Fishes of North America. 343 



Order P. CARENCHELYI. 

 (THE LONG-NECKED EELS.) 



Teleost fishes with the iutermaxillaries (premaxillaries), and supra- 

 maxillaries (maxillaries), developed and united by suture, and immov- 

 ably connected with the cranium; branchial apparatus as in Apodes; 

 scapular arch remote from the skull, and the body anguilliform. This 

 order includes a single family, Derichthyidw, lately discovered in the 

 deep seas. (Gill.) (/capa, head; t-y^f/i^, eel.) 



Family XLII. DERICHTHYID^E. 



Body anguilliform, slender, with a neck-like contraction between the 

 head and pectoral fins, and submedian anus. Scales absent, the skin being 

 perfectly smooth. Lateral line commencing on the side, behind the head, 

 near the back, but submedian behind. Head oblong, oval. Eyes in the 

 anterior half of the head. Nostrils lateral, in front of the eyes, neither 

 tubular. Mouth with the cleft little oblique, extending behind the eyes. 

 Jaws well developed, maxillaries approximated to the front of the vomer 

 and attenuated backwards. Mandible moderately stout ; the dentary with 

 the coronoid process moderate and not far from posterior end. Teeth 

 conic, in cardiform bands on the jaws and vomer. Lips moderate. 

 Tongue moderate. Preorbital bones and opercular apparatus moderately 

 developed ; operculum inserted rather low on the hyoniandibular by a 

 peduncle, horizontally oblong, with-emarginate upper edge and convex 

 lower one; suboperculum curved and applied below operculum ; iuteroper- 

 culum long, connected in front with angle of jaw and behind with front of 

 euboperculum ; preoperculum moderate. Branchial apertures lateral; 

 vertical slits in front of pectorals. Branchiostegal rays in small number, 

 (about 6), rather slender and curved upwards behind the opercula. Dor- 

 sal, anal, and caudal confluent in an uninterrupted fin ; dorsal commenc- 

 ing far behind the head ; anal commencing about midway between snout 

 and end of tail or middle of body; caudal pointed and reduced. Pectorals 

 inserted nearer the breast than back, narrow and rather long, with about 

 10 or 11 fine ray s, a4id bent forward. Branchial arches slender ; glossohyal 

 moderately long ; urohyal very slender and pointed ; first basibranchial 

 very long; second and third basibranchials moderate; epipharyngeals 

 reduced to a pair (?); hypopharyngeals long and closely appressed and 

 superincumbent on the rudimentary fifth arch. One species known, an 

 eel like fish, from the abysses of the Atlantic. (Gill.) 



(Derichihyidse, GILL, Amer. Nat., xvm, 1884, 433.) 



149. DERICHTHYS, Gill. 



Derichlhys, GILL, American Naturalist, xvm, 1884, 433, (serpenlinus). 



The generic characters are included in the family diagnosis above. 

 (depij, neck; i%0i>(;, fish.) 



573. DERICHTHYS SEIIPENTINUS, Gill. 



Body stout, somewhat compressed, especially behind vent ; greatest 

 height in region of vent, nearly equal to head; its postanal portion 

 equal to distance from vent to posterior margin of orbit. Head small, 



