I 



LYCODAPUS fierasfp:r. 139 



Lycodapus fierasfer. 



Lycodapus Jierasfer Gilb., 1890, V. U. S. Mus., XIII, 108. 



Br. r. 6 ; D. 85 ; A. 76 ; Y. ; P. 8; C. 10. 



Somewliat eel-shaped ; body and Lead compressed ; caudal section taper- 

 ing; vertical fins continuous around the end of the tail. Length of head 

 five and one half, and depth of body eight and one fourth times in the total 

 length. Distance from snout to vent contained two and one third times in 

 distance from vent to end of tail. Head compressed, nearly straight from 

 nape to end of snout, convex transversely. Snout long, nearly three times 

 as long as the eye, broad at the nostrils, broader than deep, blunt. Chin 

 somewhat steep. Mouth wide, oblique ; maxillary subtending the anterior 

 third of the orbit, lower jaws longer, ending in a blunt angle below hinder 

 part of orbit. Teeth small ; in villiform bands on the jaws ; in a crescent 

 shaped band on the vomer ; in a short group on each palatine. Eye small, 

 hardly one sixth as long as the head, length rather more than width of 

 interorbital space. No cephalic spines. Gills four, a slit behind the fourth ; 

 gill rakers 1 + 13, short, stout; lamella? very short, those on the upper 

 portion of the arch being rudimentary. The upper section of the first gill- 

 arch is very short, and bears but a single raker. Branchial apertures wide ; 

 membranes not united to one another, free from the isthmus. Vertical 

 fins moderately deep, longest ray about as long as the snout; caudal indis- 

 tinct; dorsal origin slightly backward from the axil of the pectoral; anal 

 origin distant from the snout less than twice the length of the head. Pec- 

 torals small, not far from half as long as the head, narrow, pointed. No 

 ventrals. Caudal indistinct, apparently of ten rays. Skin naked. Lateral 

 Hue nearly or quite complete. Pyloric appendages two, short and thick. 



Total length six inches. 



Brownish, darker on belly and near bases of fins ; blackish on inside 

 walls of body cavity, on opercles and around the mouth. The flanks are 

 rusty brownish ; all of the fins are light. 



