236 DEEP SEA FISHES. 



spine below the humeral symphysis is forked, while that in front of the ven- 

 trals is simple, though possibly abnormal on this specimen. 



A narrow streak along the back and the edgings of the lanterns are deep 

 black ; the flanks and the faces of the lanterns are silvery. 



The peculiar serration of dorsal and abdominal crests and the fin formu- 

 Ice serve to distinguish this species from A. lyclmus. The specimen de- 

 scribed was " Found floating on a log in the Indian Ocean off Port Louis 

 Harbor." 



Wood-Mason and Alcock, 1891, Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 

 VIIL, p. 126, mention an " Argyropelecus, sp. -^rox. hemigi/mnus, Cocco," 

 saying of it "A small specimen was taken at Station 118, in 1803 fathoms; 

 it agrees very closely with Argi/ropekeus hemigymnvs Cocco from which it 

 differs most conspicuously in having the luminous spots in a continuous 

 unbroken series from the head almost to the base of the caudal ; the tail also 

 is not so abruptly constricted off from the abdomen." " This, so far as I 

 know, is the first record of Argyropelecus from the Indo-Pacific." 



In his latest list Alcock, 1896, refers the specimen to A. hemigginnus with- 

 out comment. The description quoted does not apply to the young of the 

 Mediterranean species ; the author must have had something in hand that 

 is not yet named. Neither A. hemiggmims, A. Igclmiis, nor A. caniims have the 

 luminous spots in a continuous unbroken series from the head almost to the 

 base of the caudal, and the smaller the specimens of either the greater 

 the comparative lengths of the spaces separating the groups of the lanterns. 

 Evidently the species indicated from the Indo-Pacific is more closely allied 

 to that from the Atlantic to which the name A. affinis is here applied, identi- 

 fied by Goode and Bean with A. hcmigymmis, the most remote of the present 

 contents of the genus, and probably worthy of subgeneric distinction. 



A. canimis is closely allied to A. acnlcatus C. V. from the Azores, but has 

 not the slender tail. Sauvage, 1891, in his Fishes of Madagascar, figures a 

 specimen, Plate XLVIIL, fig. 5, from Isle Reunion under the name A. aculea- 

 tiis, which differs somewhat in shape from A. cuuiiius and has sixteen rays in 

 the anal fin. 



