88 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



toward the corners of the mouth ; iris witli radiating bars of brown. Young 

 with lighter backs and blacker fins, white around the mouth, with a white 

 blotch opposite the interojDerculum on the margin and another near the 

 hind end of the subopercle. 



Zalieutes elater- 



Malthe elater Jord. and Gilb., 1882, Proc. U. S. Mus., 365. 

 Zalieutes elater Jord. and Everm., 1896, Eep. U. S. Fish Coram., 511. 



Br. r. 6 ; D. 5-4 ; A. 4 ; V. 6 ; P. 13 (12-14) ; C. 9. 



Head and body much depressed, together forming a broad subtriangular 

 disk, wider backward, from which the narrow and somewhat depressed tail 

 tapers to the caudal fin. Length of head about two thirds of the width, 

 greatest depth through the orbits less than one third of the width. Snout 

 subtruncate, concave on the top, hai'dly extending beyond the month, 

 deeply excavated for the rostral illicium, tip directed forward, subconical, 

 with a pair of small erect tubercles immediately behind the tip, and a large 

 tubercle directed outward in front of each eye. Illicium protractile, stem 

 and bulb both capable of forward and downward movement; esca (bulb) 

 large, flesh}', subtriangular, apparently without lateral lobes ; basal portion 

 of the bulb large and thick, and commonly with five papillae on the lower 

 edge, the third papilla being median ; apical portion smaller, thin at the 

 edges, which fold backward, surmounted by a small bifid or simple worm- 

 like process. Mouth small, width less than length of orbit, and more than 

 twice the width of the interorbital space. Teeth in villiform bands on jaws, 

 tongue, vomer, palatines, and pharyngeals ; palatine groups rounded, much 

 smaller than the vomerine. Eye large, nearly three times as long as the 

 snout, lateral ; orbits prominent. Forehead slightly concave. Nasal sacs 

 small ; anterior nostril smaller than the posterior, with a short tube. Gills 

 two and one half, no gill on the first arch ; rakers obsolete ; openings small, 

 placed superiorly in the axilla. 



Skin covered with fine closely placed sharp striate based tubercular 

 scales, among which larger tubercles are scattered with more or less irregu- 

 larity. A series of the larger tubercles may be traced from each orbit at 

 the side of the median line of tlie back to the caudal ; at each side of the 

 tail there are several series, as also along the lateral edges of the disk, where 



