Jordan and Evermann. Fishes of North America. 1995 



occiput, a very long one ou opercular angle, and numerous shorter ones on opercle, jaws, 

 and along anterior portion of lateral line. Branchiostegals 7. Body without plates or 

 prickles; the head, including upper part of eye, and the upper anterior part of body, with 

 sparsely distributed stellate granulations, visible only in large specimens. In our speci- 

 mens the In-own bar at base of caudal is followed by a wide white bar, sometimes more or 

 less broken, the terminal hall' blackish, narrowly margined with white. 



(^cbvrj, band; ovpd, tail.) 



Mlacocottnft2otun-ux. BEAN, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 1890, 43, off Trinity Islands, Alaska, at 

 Albatross Station 2853, at 56 N., 154 W., in 159 fathoms (Type, No. 44643. Coll. 

 Albatross); GILBERT, Kept. r. S. Fish Comm. 1893 (1896), 411. 



737. ARGYROCOTTUS, Her/enstein. 



Argyrocottus, HERZENSTEIN, Melanges Biol. Ac. Imp. Sci., xm, 1892, 219, St. Petersburg. 



Spinous dorsal short; ventrals extremely long, their tips extending 

 beyond front of anal fin; gill membranes scarcely united to the isthmus, 

 forming a broad fold across it, no slit behind the last gill; teeth on the 

 \ omer, none on the palatines; skin entirely naked, without scales or bony 

 plates; preopereles with 3 small spines. North Pacific, (apyvpos, silver; 

 Coitus.) 



2:J<}. AKftYROCOTTUS ZAXDERI, Herzenstein. 



Head 31 ; depth If). C. YIII-15; A. 13; P. 11; V. 3; C. 18; lateral line 

 with 35 tubes. Eye 3- in length of head; interorbital spaee 1 in eye; 2 

 well-developed erests at the vertex; maxillary reaching middle of eye; 

 lower jaw slightly projecting; 2 anal spines; 3 small spines on preopercle, 

 the upper half as long as the eye, turned upward, the others directed down- 

 ward; longest dorsal spine 4 length of head; pectoral reaching ninth ray 

 of soft dorsal; ventrals reaching to the next to the last ray of anal. 

 Color brownish, dark above, with numerous silvery spots bordered with 

 darker, a silvery stripe from below the eye to the base of the lower jaw; 

 another from eye to angle of preopercle; a row of 6 large irregular spots 

 along middle of sides, many smaller ones below these; 2 smaller irreg- 

 ular spots behind these; a bell-shaped spot with a point directed up- 

 ward on the belly between the ventrals; the first dorsal with its upper 

 margin blackish, with milk-white spots dotted with black; a transparent 

 spot at base of fourth and sixth rays; a small transparent spot near base 

 of fourth ray; another behind sixth; about these spots the coloration is 

 darker ; soft dorsal almost uniformly dark ; anal colorless, its border dark, 

 with 2 or 3 dark spots on each ray; caudal uniformly dusky, the upper 

 and lower rays blackish, with clear spots; ventral with darker cross 

 streaks; pectorals with dark rings and streaks. Ventral in female prob- 

 ably much shorter than in male, the color less marked. Three specimens 

 of this beautifully marked Cottoid taken in Shana Bay, Iturup Island, 

 show the following characters : The branchiostegal membranes are widely 

 joined across the throat, narrowly united in front of the middle line of 

 isthmus, with a rather wide free margin behind; lateral line without 

 plates; nasal spines small ; 4 short spines on preopercular margin. These 

 specimens answer well to the detailed description of the type, but are 



