150 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Voi<. II, 



Family STOMIATID^. 



Triplophos hemingi (MacArdle). 



Photichthys hemingi, MacArdle, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), vol viii, page 521 (1901) ; 

 Illustr. Zool. " Investigator ^'^ Fishes, plate xxxvi, fig. 2 (1905). 



B. 14, D. 10, A. 61, P. II, V. 9. 



''Body black, covered with large deciduous scales. The length of the head is 

 about one-seventh the length of the body without the caudal, and a little greater than 

 the height of the body. The eyes are situated very near the anterior profile, about 

 a diameter apart from one another, and are one-sixth the length of the head. There 

 is a double row of small needle-like teeth in the upper jaw, and a single row of similar 

 but smaller teeth in the mandible. A few small teeth in the palatines and vomer, 

 but the latter has no fang. The surfaces of the mesopterygoids minutely denticulate. 

 Gill-openings very wide. Four gills with short laminae and long setose gill-rakers on 

 the first three arches. The dorsal fin is situated above the space between the ventral 

 and anal fins. The latter is extremely long and terminates about an eye-length from 

 the caudal. The pectoral and ventral fins are nearly in the same plane, and the 

 latter are almost midway between the former and the beginning of the anal fin. On 

 the two specimens, one of which is very much damaged and the other by no means 

 perfect, no adipose dorsal fin can be made out. The back is scaly and is not rugose. 

 The luminous organs, which show up a dull opaque white against the dark back- 

 ground, niay be grouped as follows : — 



(i) One between the bases of all the branchiostegal rays. 



(2) Sixteen between the symphysis of the jaw and the pectoral fins. 



(3) Eight between the pectoral and the ventral fins. 



(4) Five between the ventral and the anal fins. 



(5) Thirty-five or thirty-six distributed along the bases of the anal rays. 



The last four groups may be taken as forming the lowest lateral row. 



(6) and (7) A second and a third lateral row join about the ventral fins, and 



run as a single row of spots to near the caudal fin. 

 (8) A fourth row, not so distinct as the others, runs from behind the head 

 to near the termination of the anal fin. 



There are two glan'ds on the head, one at the anterior angle of, and the other 

 behind, the orbit. 



I^ength 6 — 8 inches. Two specimens from the Bay of Bengal, 475 and 859 — 880 

 fathoms. 



This fish bears several points of resemblance to Gonostoma maderense (Johnson, 

 Proc. Zool. Soc, 1890, p. 458), notably in the absence of fangs on the vomer and of an 

 adipose dorsal fin ; but in other respects it appears like a true Photichthys. It differs 

 from G. maderense in having scales on the back and none on the cheek, and in having 

 but a single row of teeth in the anterior portion of the lower jaw. It is quite 



