MALTIIOIVSIS SIMXOSA. 1U5 



protruding, pointed, turned upwatd at the end, concave across the top, 

 deeply excavated below the rostrum for the illicium. Illicium large, ^vith 

 three lobes, the median of which is largest, less round, vertically ridged, 

 and is thin edged around a cavity immediately behind its tip. The organ 

 can be protracted to bring the bulbs in front of the mouth, and -the median 

 bulb can be turned forward and down, a movement accompanied by 

 changes of shape, producing the effect of a living and swimming bait, an 

 effect probably enhanced by luminositv. A groove on each side separates 

 the rostral and post-narial ridges ; the latter are most prominent near the 

 angle of the mouth. Supraorbital ridges prominent, crown little arched. 

 Nasal sacs prominent ; posterior nostril large, transverse ; anterior nostril 

 small, belkshaped. Mouth oblique, rather narrow, equal in width to half 

 the distance f]-om the snout to the occiput ; lower jaws very little longer. 

 Teeth in villiform bands on jaws, vomer, palatines and tongue ; vomerine 

 band wide and short ; palatine groups longer, rounded. Orbit large, one 

 and two thirds times the length of the snout; eye longer than high. Gills 

 two, none on first and fourth arches ; gill openings small, placed superiorly 

 in the axillae ; rakers six on each of the first two arches. Branchiostegal 

 rays six, slender, outer stronger and joined to the opercular bones. Opercular 

 tubercle small, with four spines or sometimes more. 



Dorsal small, behind the middle of the total length ; anal small, narrow, 

 originating about one length of the eye backward from the base of the 

 dorsal; pectorals short, about three fifths of the length of the skull from 

 the occiput to the end of the snout, longer than the anal, moderately- broad, 

 fringed ; ventrals small, fringed, length half of that from snout to nape ; 

 caudal small, subtruncate, nearly one fourth shorter than the skull in front 

 of the vertebral column. 



Scales much suialler and much more numerous than those of M. erinacea, 

 commonly simple, single cusped, striate based. A few have two cusps each, 

 and those on the top of the snout and about the nasal sacs and on the 

 orbital ridges are multispinous. On the larger scales of the sides of the tail 

 the cusps are longer, more slender and hooked ; those on the ventral surface 

 are small. 



Lateral system with deep channels and distinct disks (papillae), and with 

 but a feeble development of the fringes between the spines on the lobes 

 covering the sensory organs. The arrangement of the papilte resembles 

 that obtaining; throudiout this genus and in allied genera; the second 



