MICROLEPIDIUM GRANDICEPS. 181 



Microlepidium grandiceps sp. n. 

 Plate XLIII.fy. i-J; Plate LXXXUI.fig. 1, Lat. Syst. 



Br. r. 7 ; D. VIII, 41 ; A. 4 ; V. 2 (4) ; P. 19 ; LI. 114. 

 Compressed and ratlior angular and pointed forward, tapering rapidly 

 behind the abdomen to thin and slender in the caudal region, depth equal- 

 ling one-fourth of the total length without the caudal fin, width hardly half the 

 depth. Head large, two sevenths of the entire length, half as wide as deep, 

 chin rising forward. Snout short, blunt, in length equal to the width of the 

 interorbital space or half the length of the eye. Nostrils, both very small, 

 equal in size, close together, immediately in front of the orbit, anterior 

 above the level of the posterior. Eye large, twice as long as the snout, 

 double the w'idth of the interorbital space, one third as long as the head, 

 very prominent. Mouth wide, descending backward ; maxillary reaching 

 to a vertical from the middle of the eye. Teeth small, in narrow villiforni 

 bands on the jaws ; stronger, liooked, and in a single rather prominent long 

 curved V-shaped series on the vomer; absent from the palatines. Opercular 

 spine moderate, hidden in the skin ; no other spines. Apparently without a 

 barbel. Pseudobranchite. Gills four, a slit behind the fourth ; rakers 5+11 

 on the forward edge of the first arch, slender, longest as long as the snout. 

 Measuring from the end of the snout the body cavity is one and one-half 

 times as long as the head. Gill openings wide ; membranes united, free 

 from the isthmus. Eight pyloric cteca. 



Base of first dorsal shorter than the eye, first ray above the base of the 

 pectoral. Base of second dorsal separated from the caudal by a distance 

 equal to the length of the orbit, first ray of the fin nearly above that of the 

 anal, which latter is immediately behind the vent. Pectorals narrow, slender, 

 two-thirds as long as the head, or more. Ventrals long, slender, as long as 

 the head, presenting the appearance of a single bifid ray but seen on dissec- 

 tion to be composed of two long rays closely bound together and a couple of 

 short rudiments cojicealed by the skin. 



Scales very small, those on the head and the snout minute. Lateral line 

 indistinct. Though the specimen described is only three and one-half inches 

 in length, its ovaries are filled with eggs that appear to be about mature. 



Muscular portions reddish-brown ; fins lighter to whitish ; throat, belly, 

 and sides of the head blackish with a silvery lustre ; linings of mouth and 

 gill chamber white, those of the abdomen black. 



