644 REPORT OF COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
e. Teeth in jaws biserial, small; vomer with a series of long, pointed canines ; 
tail about 4 times as long as rest of body ; gill-openings narrow. 
Hoplunnis, 28. 
ee. Teeth in jaws in several series ; gill-openings wide. 
/. Teeth in jaws in several series, those of one series enlarged and com- 
pressed, long canines in front ; vomer with several long series of teeth, 
the middle one of conical canines Mur^enesox, 29. 
ff. Teeth all conical, slender, and sharp, those of jaws in wide bands; 
maxillary with deep groove, running the entire length of the bone and 
dividing the band of teeth into two portions; shaft of vomer with a 
medial series of conical teeth Xenomystax, 30. 
Genus 24. — GORDIIOHTH Y S. 
Gordiichthys Jordan & Davis, gen. nov. ( irretitus ). 
Type : Gordiichthys irretitus Jordan & Davis. 
Etymology : Gordius , a horse-hair worm, from rdpdtoe, the king whose 
complicated knot was cut by Alexander ; l/Ouq, fish. 
This genus is based on a single species, distinguished from Stilbiscus 
by the position of its dorsal. 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF GORDIICHTHYS. 
a. Dorsal fin beginning before the gill-opening, not far behind the nape; trunk very 
long ; tail If in rest of body ; head about 16 in trunk (15 to 18, the type being so 
injured that the gill-openings can not be made out) ; greatest depth of body 40 
to 50 times in length of body ; upper jaw much the longer, arched, the eye be- 
hind its middle; eye moderate, 2f in snout, 4f in gape ; lower jaw with one row 
of about 10 stoutish recurved teeth on each side, those in front enlarged and 
canine-like; upper jaw with a series of similar teeth on each side and another 
down middle of vomer, these three series converging forward and meeting at a 
point opposite middle of lower jaw; in front of this on premaxillary and nasal 
bones about 4 large, stout, hooked canines, the largest teeth of all; 123 vertebrae 
in trunk (probably about 100 in tail); (pectoral, gill-opening, and skin wholly 
digested in the type ; coloration probably similar to Stilbiscus edivardsi). 
Irretitus, 89. 
89. GORDIICHTHYS IRRETITUS. 
Gordiichthys irretitus Jordan & Davis, sp. nov. (Snapper Banks at Pensacola). 
Habitat : Gulf of Mexico. 
Etymology: Irretitus , entangled. 
This species is known from a single partly digested example, 31 inches 
long, from the spewings of snappers ( Lutjanus aya) on the Snapper 
Banks at Pensacola. 
Genus 25.— STILBISCUS. 
Stilbiscus Jordan & Bollman, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 549, 1888 ( edwardsi ). 
Type : Stilbiscus edwardsi Jordan & Bollman. 
Etymology: ^rt/l/?o>, to shine. 
This genus contains a single species, a very slender eel, distinguished 
from Leptoconger by its short tail. 
