670 REPORT OP COMMISSIONER OF FISH AND FISHERIES. 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF SIMENCHELYS. 
a Anterior profile of head bluntly rounded; angle of mouth at a point half-way be- 
tween the tip of snout and anterior edge of eye ; body stout, the depth at vent 
about equal to length of head ; dorsal beginning about a head’s length behind 
gill-openings ; eye 1| to 2 in snout ; pectoral 2£ in head ; head 4£ to 4£ in trunk ; 
tail a head's length longer than head and trunk ; color brown, nearly plain. 
Parasiticus, 124. 
124. SIMENCHELYS PARASITICUS. 
Simenchelys parasiticus Gill (mss.) in Goode & Bean, Bull. Essex Inst., 27, 1879 
(Newfoundland Banks); Bean,Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 113, 1880 (a list of 
localities) ; Goode, ibid, 485; Jordan &, Gilbert, Syn. Fish N. A., 363, 1883; 
Gunther, Voy. Challenger, xxn, 252, 1887. 
Conchognathus grimaldii Collett, Bull. Soc. Zool. France, 122, 1889 (Azores Islands). 
Habitat: Deep waters of the Atlantic. 
Etymology : Latin, parasitic. 
This singular eel is occasionally taken in the North Atlantic, where 
It burrows into the flesh of the halibut ( Hippoglossus hippoglossus). 
Our specimen is from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. 
Family XL— ILYOPHIDIDi®. 
This family contains a single species with characters intermediate 
between the Simenchelyidce and the Synaphobranchidce , combining the 
general physiognomy of Synaphobranchus with the separate gill-slits 
and long-bowed branchiostegal rays of Simenchelyidce (Gilbert). 
Genus 46.— ILYOPHIS. 
Ilyophis Gilbert, mss. 
This genus is thus described by Dr. Gilbert : 
Body scaly; pectorals well developed; lateral line prominent; gill-slits horizon- 
tal, inferior, well separated ; nostrils lateral, the posterior immediately in front of the 
eye, the anterior with a short tube, near tip of snout. Maxillaries as in Synapho- 
branchus; the clamping processes closely appressed to the side of the vomer behind 
its head ; lower jaw strong, apparently with the coronoid process well developed ; 
series of teeth on head and shaft of vomer continuous; no lips; tongue little developed, 
with narrow free margin; branchiostegal rays 15 in number (as determined without 
dissection), not shortened, some of them curved around and above the opercle. Dor- 
sal, anal, and caudal confluent, rather high, the rays clearly visible through the skin ; 
dorsal beginning well forward, its origin immediately behind the base of pectorals; 
origin of anal near end of anterior third of body. 
Type : Ilyophis brunneus Gilbert. 
Etymology : 7 ooze ; o<pts, snake. 
