— 305 — 



heir edges are sinuous and they terminate in a fine point. 

 Judging from their length, strength,, and development, these 

 ventral paddles must be most efficient for swimming; I know of 

 no other fish possessing anything like them, and have therefore 

 thought proper to derive from so peculiar a character the generic 

 name which I have proposed for this singular fish. 



The next remorkable feature of my Eretmophorus is the huge 

 abdominal cone, the base of which occupies the entire space 

 between the insertions of the ventrals and that of the anal fin. 

 This cone appears to develop with age, and it is certainly larger 

 and more prominent in my oldest and biggest specimen, equalling 

 in height that of the body just behind the pectorals, where it is 

 greatest. This abdominal cone is quite smooth ; its skin, devoid 

 of scales, is silvery. I have not ventured to open it in any of 

 the three specimens yet discovered, for fear of damaging to a 

 certainty these rare and very delicate creatures; but the suppo- 

 sition that it contains most of the alimentary canal cannot be far 

 from the truth; at its apex, which becomes cylindrical, is an 

 aperture, evidently the vent, and behind this a slender conical 

 papilla on which I could not distinguish anything like an opening. 

 The scales cover the whole body except the head and abdo 

 minai cone, which are, as I have said before, naked. They are 

 small, very adherent, cycloid, and marked with concentric lines. 

 I have figured a few magnified (Plate XXXIV, fig. 1), to give an 

 exact idea of their characters: they are very similar to those of 

 Hypsirhynehus hepatìcus, Facciola. A thin pellucid epidermal 

 layer covers them. 



• Only three specimens of Eretmophorus kleinenbcrgi have, so 

 far as I know, yet been captured and preserved ; they were caught 

 alive with a hand-net along with other pelagic animals on the . 

 surface at the mouth of the harbour of Messina, as the current 

 was flowing in. I owe them to the kindness of my friend Pro- 

 fessor Nicolaus Kleinenberg director of the Zoological Institute 

 of the Messina University, to whom I owe many other ichtyolo- 

 gical rarities; and as a mark of my gratitude and esteem I have 

 thought proper to give his name to so singular a species, which 

 is evidently as yet undescribed. These specimens are now in the 

 Central Collection of Italian Vertebrata in the Royal Zoological 



20 — Annali di Agricoltura. X 



