2026 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



Psi/ohrolutincB. From the Liparididce, their separate ventrals distinguish 

 them sufficiently. Small shore fishes of the North Pacific; only a single 

 species known, (^vxpohovrrtf, one who bathes in cold water.) 



2395. PSYCHROLUTES PARADOXUS, Giinther. 



Head 3f; depth 4, equal to head without snout. D. IX, 15 to 17, only 

 12 rays seen without dissection; A. 12 or 13; V. I, 3; branchiostegals 7. 

 Head large, very broad, tapering suddenly to caudal peduncle. Eye 4 in 

 head, a little shorter than snout, a little less than width of interorbital 

 space. Maxillary extending to below middle of eye. Interocular space 

 flat, not concave; jaws equal, the lower /^-shaped, its arch not narrowed 

 behind. Pectoral reaching to slightly above origin of anal, 2 in body ; 

 ventrals very small, % length head. Vent about midway between ventral 

 and anal origin, the second dorsal beginning nearly over tip of pectoral; 

 first dorsal entirely buried in the skin, its short, stiffish spines to be found 

 only by dissection. Color light chocolate brown above, with minute spots 

 of dark; whitish below; a pale stripe from eye downward and forward, 

 between 2 dark ones; body with 3 very irregular dark cross bands, 

 the third extending on dorsal and anal, the first 2 largely confluent and 

 all very irregular in form; an oblique dark band on base of caudal, a 

 narrow dark band behind it ; pectoral with 2 or 3 cross bands; all fins, 

 except the ventral, with traces of bands. Length 2-J- inches. A speci- 

 men, 50 mm long, taken by the Albatross off St. Paul Island, Bering Sea, 

 in 1896, shows the following characters: Head 2|; depth 3. D. IX, 15; A. 

 13; P. 19; eye 4 in head; width of mouth, from angle to angle, 1; snout 

 3 ; interorbital 3^. Body short, broad, thick, tadpole shape, the texture 

 soft like that of a Liparid, especially about the head; the skin is limp 

 and smooth, covered with little soft dermal warts, that of head especially 

 lax, the cheeks tumid and translucent. No trace of spines on head, the 

 bones all thin and weak ; nostrils each in a short tube ; mouth broad, 

 its cleft chiefly anterior, the jaws equal ; teeth very minute, none on vomer 

 or palatines; lower jaw with 8 large open pores. Gill membranes 

 broadly united to the isthmus, the gill opening extending to slightly 

 below base of pectoral. Lateral line obsolete. Dorsals united, with a 

 slight notch between, the first buried in a ridge of skin so that its deli- 

 cate spines can not be counted from without; second dorsal low, similar 

 to anal, both of them free from the caudal; lower pectoral rays pro- 

 gressively shortened, the longest 1 in head; ventrals moderate, I, 3, 

 reaching vent, 2fc in head; caudal rounded. Color creamy white, with 

 blackish cross bands, irregular in form and broken by whitish patches; 

 5 black spots on lower jaw; top of head blackish; a narrow blotch at 

 shoulder; a wider one across first dorsal; abroad one 011 second dorsal 

 abruptly broadened on body, then narrowed, extending across anal; an 

 irregular bar at base of caudal; a narrow bar and some spots and streaks 

 on the fin; pectoral with 2 curved bars, the inner concave, the outer 

 convex backward, the two inclosing a rounded pinkish or deep orange 

 area, Alaska to Puget Sound, rather common in water of moderate depth ; 

 a remarkable little fish, evidently a degraded Cottoid. Here described 



