62 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



Melamphaes mizolepis. 



Scopehts mizolepis Gilut,, 1878, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., II., 185. 

 Melampha'es mizolepis Giint, 1887, " Challenger " Deep Sea Fishes, 28. 



D. Ill, 10 ; A. I, 8; V. I, 6 ; P. 14 ; LI. 20 ca. 



Compressed, high at the nape, greatest height about one fourth of the 

 total length, greatest width about three fifths of the height, body cavity 

 nearly half of the total length. Head large, two fifths of the length 

 to the base of the caudal, half as wide as long, transversely convex, and 

 nearly straight or with a slight longitudinal concavity on the top, much 

 curved from the chin to the isthmus. Skull thin and fragile, with prom- 

 inent ridges along the canals of the lateral system. These ridges give 

 the skull a trough-like channel on the crown hardly as Avide as the eye 

 and extending forward to the interorbital space ; above each orbit a kidney- 

 shaped cavity; suborbital, opercular, and submandibular grooves deeply 

 traced. The median keel below the chin, formed by the thin inner edges 

 of the mandibles, is very prominent. The maxillary is almost entirely 

 hidden by the suborbital expansions, and the orbital edges are well devel- 

 oped. Both preopercular ridges are prominent ; operculum extended in 

 a sharp point. Snout massive, nearly twice as long as the eye, blunt, the 

 angle on the chin of moderate prominence. Mouth wide, oblique ; lower 

 jaws longer, much produced downward, forming a median keel; maxillaries 

 extending below about half of the eye. Teeth very small, apparently in 

 a single series on each jaw. Eye small, less than one sixth of the length 

 of the head, and less than one half of the interorbital space. Gill rakers 

 seven plus fifteen, little longer than the eye, compressed, acuminate. 

 Pseudobranchiae small. 



Dorsal origin in front of lialf-way from the snout to the base of the 

 caudal ; base less than half the length of its distance from the snout. Anal 

 origin below the ninth ray of the dorsal, seventh anal ray below hindmost 

 dorsal ray. Caudal peduncle, from the dorsal, three fourths as long as 

 the head. Bases of the pectorals forward of the base of the dorsal and 

 backward of the insertions of the ventrals, fin long, extending above the 

 greater portion of the base of the anal. Ventrals nearly one diameter of 

 the eye forward of the pectorals, elongate. 



Scales large, apparently about twenty along the lateral line. 



