CHONDRACANTHUS MEELUCCU. 181 



1892. Chonclracanthus merluccii T. Scott. 10th Ann. Rept. Fishery 

 Board for Scotland, p. 262. 



1896. Chonclracanthus merluccii Bassett-Sinith. (7) p. 161. 

 1900. Chonclracanthus merluccii T. Scott. (112) p. 166. 

 1906. Chonclracanthus merhicii Brian. (21) p. 97, pi. vii, fig. 4. 

 1906. Chonclracanthus merluccii Norman & T. Scott. (88) p. 217. 



Female. — Body oblong and flattened. Head some- 

 what wedge-shaped, wider behind than in front, the 

 front margin rounded, and a more or less distinct 

 median line extending from it backwards ; the head 

 seen in profile sloping upward and backward, and 

 becoming distinctly gibbous behind ; provided with 

 small, lateral horns — one on each side near the postero- 

 lateral corners — which extend obliquely backwards 

 like the barbs on a fishing hook. Thorax short, 

 indistinctly bisegmented ; a constriction separating 

 the head from the thorax and another separating 

 the thorax from the genital segment ; the second seg- 

 ment of the thorax wider than the first and nearly as 

 wide as the genital segment; its anterior lateral 

 corners produced forwards into small round knobs. 

 Genital segment moderately thick, and flattened 

 dorsally, a slight constriction dividing it into two 

 nearly equal portions ; a pair of tolerably stout and 

 elongated processes springing from the ventral aspect 

 of the segment just in front of the constriction, and 

 extending obliquely backwards so as to reach beyond 

 its posterior end ; the posterolateral corners of the 

 genital segment also produced backward into elongated 

 and moderately stout horn -like prolongations. Abdo- 

 men very small. 



The two pairs of antenna? and the mouth-appendages 

 similar to those of Chonclracanthus comutus; so are also 

 the thoracic legs, except that the second pair are con- 

 siderably larger than the first. Length to the end of the 

 posterior processes about 12 mm. These processes 

 about three millimetres in length, being rather shorter 

 than the ventral prolongations, which measure about 

 four millimetres. Egg-strings about ten millimetres in 

 length, moderately thick, and containing numerous ova. 



