VENEFICA TENTACULATA. 319 



Lateral line distinct, with a single row of pores, of which fifty-two lie 

 between the skull and the vent. Between the anterior nostrils and the 

 back of the interorbital space there are eight pairs of moderate sized pores, 

 and distributed over snout and head minute pores are numerous. The 

 proboscis or tentacle has great freedom of movement and its function is 

 undoubtedly tactile. Total length thirty-seven inches. 



Dark brown to black, edges of the fins and the mouth lighter, tentacle 

 black. 



Venefica tentaculata sp. n. 



Plate 31, fig. 2. 



Long and slender, tapering to snout and tail, anteriorly subround, pos- 

 teriorly compressed, tail filiform ; depth about one forty-eighth of the 

 entire length. Head slender, one ninth of the total, tapering from nape to 

 proboscis. Snout little more than half as long as the head, wider than deep, 

 narrow forward, slightly widened below the proboscis, which latter rises 

 from the top of the prenarial section. A very slight rounded symphyseal 

 expansion on the lower jaws which fits into a shallow concavity below the 

 anterior nostrils and lacks one length of the orbit of reaching to the end of 

 the snout. The tentacular proboscis is nearly round and about one third as 

 long as the remainder of the snout from the eje forward. Eye small, 

 close upon one ninth of the snout, inclusive of the tentacle, or nearly 

 one sixteenth of the entire head from the gill openings. Mouth wide, 

 cleft extending backward of the orbit about one third of the latter's 

 diameter; jaws weak, lower slightly enlarged at the symphysis into a 

 rounded extremity received behind the anterior group of teeth in a shallow 

 excavation. Teeth very small, hooking back toward the gullet, very sharp 

 on edges and apex, in villiform bands on jaws and vomer ; forward band 

 separated from the other vomerines by a space, narrowing or V-sliaped 

 forward, from which a notch extends outward in front of the maxillary 

 bands. Anterior nostrils with a short tube, forward of the ends of the 

 lower jaws, close to the base of the tentacle, directed forward ; posterior 

 near the upper half of the eye, oblique, oblong, with a valvular fold on the 

 front edge. Gill openings small, subround, hardly as large as the eye. 



