52 THE DISCOBOLI. 



Liparis mucosus. 



Plate V. Figs. 1-5; Plate IX. Fig. 1; Plate X. Fig. A. 



Liparis mucosus Ayres, 1855, Pr. Cal. Acad., I. 24,-1873, Pr. Cal. Acad., I. (reprint) 22; Gth., 

 1861, Cat., III. 165, 559; J. & G., 1881, Pr. U. S. Mus., IV. 62, — 1882, Bull. 16 U. S. Mus., 744. 



Liparis (Neoliparis) mucosus St., 1875, Ichth. Beitr., III. 54,-1876, S. B. Ak. Wieu, LXXII. 82; 

 Jor., 1887, Rep. U. S. F. Coram., 1885, 903. 



Neoliparis mucosus J. & G., 1880, Pr. U. S. Mus., III. 454. 



B. 6 ; D. 34-36 ; A. 25-27; P. 30-32 ; C. 14-17 ; Vert. 39. 



One of the more elongate species. Slightly depressed and broader 

 forward of the dorsal, stout and compressed behind the abdominal cavity. 

 The upper and the lower outlines form long curves in the posterior half 

 of the body, and approach each other gradually in the anterior. Greatest 

 height, behind the middle of the total length, one fourth of the length, 

 without the caudal. Snout to anal fin not quite as far as from first anal 

 ray to base of caudal. Head short, about one fifth of the entire length, 

 depressed, convex on the occiput, less so between the eyes, swollen on 

 cheeks and internasal region (much less on young), snout blunt, broadly 

 rounded, opercular spine long. Mouth-cleft moderate, little wider than 

 the interorbital space, maxillary not reaching a vertical from the eye. 

 Teeth tricuspid, losing the cusps and becoming chisel-shaped or blunt with 

 use, bases strong, rounded, apices compressed. Eyes small, one sixth to 

 one seventh as long as the head, half as long as the snout. Posterior 

 nostril smaller, above the eye, half the ocular diameter from the anterior, 

 which is larger and has a short tube. Vent nearly one third of the 

 distance from the snout to the base of the caudal. Ventral disk small, 

 half as long as the head, nearer to the vent than to the end of the snout, 

 its middle on a vertical from the gill opening. Gill opening moderate, 

 half as wide as the mouth, one third of its length descending in front of 

 the base of the pectoral. Skin thin, loose, covered with slime. Pectoral 

 rather short, reaching as far back as the vent, broadly rounded in the upper 

 portion, with the fourth to the eighth rays, at each side of the disk, pro- 

 longed into a sort of fringed lobe. Dorsal beginning over the middle of 

 the length of the pectoral, with six or seven of the anterior rays separated 

 from the posterior by a space in which the rays are shorter, having the 

 appearance of two nearly distinct fins. Anal with its first ray opposite 

 the dorsal notch, about two fifths of the distance from the snout to the end 

 of the caudal, the base of which is hardly reached by the last raj. Caudal 

 nearly as long as the head, subtruncate. 



