DIBRAXCIIOPSIS SPONGIOSA. 97 



old, and in which the forehead and rostrum are much depressed and flat- 

 tened. Shape and spines similar to those of Dibrancluis, but the armature 

 less harsh. Orbit large; eye medium. Mouth wide; tongue broad, naked 

 anteriorly. Occiput high. Gills two, none on first and fourth arches. 

 Illicium small, protractile forward and down ; lateral lobes of, esca (bait) 

 rather small, functioning in position as at rest; median lobe large, broad, 

 high, rounded, and with a small .sensory papilla on the middle of the upper 

 edge, turniug downward in function so as to expo.se the hinder surface. 



The typical species of this genus, D. sponrjiosa Gilb., 1890, is reckles.sly 

 referred by Jordan and Evermann to the genus Halieuta?a. They " might 

 jnst as well have placed it at random under any other genus of a totally 

 difierent fauna." 



Dibranchopsis spongiosa. 



Halieufaa spongiosa Gilbert, 1890, P. U. S. Mus., 12-t. 

 Plate XX. 



Br. r. 6 ; D. 6 ; A. 4 ; V. 5 ; P. 13 ; C. 9. 



Head and body depres.sed, together forming a subquadrangular or sub- 

 pentangular disk nearly or quite as broad as long. Disk truncate in front, 

 descending froui the skull backward and sideways, curved on the margins at 

 the sides and converging on those opposed to and behind the gill openings 

 backward from the process of the suboperculum. The entire body is soft 

 and flabby. There is some resemblance in shape to D. microjjus Ale, but 

 the disk is broader and hardly so deep, the spines are less dtjveloped, the 

 dorsal is a little farther from the gill openings, and the caudal section is as 

 long as the disk or longer. Body translucent, extending little farther 

 backward than tlie gill openings, thin in the opercular region. Head large, 

 one third as deep as long; skull half as long as the distance from snout to 

 dorsal, broad and flat behind the orbits, broad, flattened, descending and 

 widening forward on the forehead and snout, width at nostrils more than 

 length of snout and orbit. Eostrum truncate to indented on large indi- 

 viduals, moi'e pointed and prominent on small ones. Snout three times as 

 broad across the nostrils as long, as deep as long, subtruncate, margin 

 indented above the illicium, which is lodged in a wide but low excavation 

 between the nostrils. Nasal sacs prominent ; posterior nostril larger, trans- 

 verse, anterior with a short befl-shaped tube. Illicium small, trilobate, pro- 



