326 dep:p sea fishes. 



below. Rather than to assign them at random it is here proposed to form a 

 group for these and similar unplaced larvte, Atopichthys, in which they may 

 remain until such time as by means of larger collections the adult forms and 

 their respective generic affinities may be determined. To give a specific 

 name to each type of Atopichthys will be likely to introduce synonyms in 

 some cases, yet at the moment there appears to be no better way, in which 

 to avoid the risk and at the same time to secure facility of reference. 



A most important and recent addition to the knowledge of the Atopich- 

 thyes is a publication by Stromman, 1896, in which fourteen new species 

 were described and figured. All of these species were placed in Lepto- 

 cephalus; such of them as do not belong to the congers will be placed in 

 Atopichthys until their development is traced. 



With tolerable nearness, the horizontal distribution of the Atopichthyes 

 corresponds with that of the Muroenoids. These forms are pelagic, it is true, 

 but it is likely the adults of most of those described below are found at great 

 depths, and in view of their life histories to be written in the future they 

 are introduced here in the report on the bathybial species. As yet no spe- 

 cies of the genus Leptocephalus are known to occur in the eastern Pacific. 

 The species of Atopichthys in the collection most resembling L. Morrisii 

 are probably young of Uroconger or of Congermuraena. Other species 

 with tubular anterior nostrils, on Plate LXVII., may represent species of 

 Ophichthys ; another species with a nostril in front of the lower half of 

 the eye may belong to a species of Chlopsis, a genus apparently replacing 

 Nettastoma in this region ; and another with a nostril midway from the 

 eye to the end of the snout may prove a Xenomystax. One species of the 

 lot, Plate LXV. fig. 2, is closely allied to Esunculus Costal Kaup, of which 

 Giinther, 1870, remarked " this fish is clearly the young of a form belong- 

 ing to one of the more highly organized Physostomous families, perhaps 

 of Akp'jcephalus." Whether the species figured below belongs to Alepo- 

 cephalus or to Bathytroctes, as is more likely, or to some other genus of 

 the family is not to be decided from the material at hand. The great 

 differences in the numbers of the fin rays, as compared with those of 

 E. Costai, make it doubtful whether the adults of the two forms belong to 

 one genus. Possibly our species is a young Albula. 



