Remarks on Myctophum glaciale (Reinh.). 43 
dicate this it may be convenient to use trinominal nomenclature, 
taking the Atlantic form as the typical one and naming the 
Mediterranean forms Stomias ferox boa (Risso) and Myctophum 
glaciale thori (Tåning). 
Johs. Schmidt (1918), the leader SE the Danish expeditions, 
has published an account of the material belonging to the families 
Argentinidæ and Microstomidæ. These families, which are related 
to the Salmonidæ and by some authors. are included in this 
family, consist of few species, generally ofa northern range. 
According to Schmidt (I. c. Chart fig. 2) the Microstomide 
are represented in the North Atlantic by Nansenia grönlandica 
(Reinh.), originally described. by Reinhardt in 1839 from a 
specimen from W. Greenland but by the Danish investigations 
proved to be very common in the.,waters to the south of Iceland 
as far south as abt. 49° N. — west of the British Channel. In 
the Mediterranean N. oblita (Facc.) was found to be very common; 
two specimens were also cauglit in the Atlantic, south of Ireland, 
but otherwise we have no records of any Nansenia in the Atlantic. 
From the waters of Japan Tanaka has recorded a specimen of 
N. grönlandica which, however, Schmidt considers as a distinct 
species, and proposes to name it N. tanakai. A second species 
from Japan, N. ardesiaca, has in 1914 been described by Jordan 
& Thomson. The Mediterranean harbours another Microstomid, 
— Microstoma argenteum Val., which hitherto is known only from 
these waters; it is perhaps a southern form, if the statement of 
Brauer (1908 p. 10) be correct that the “Valdiva” captured one 
specimen in the Gulf of Guinea. 
The Argentines are less oceanic in their occurrence than the 
Microstomids. Argentina silus is known from the Atlantic coast 
of N. America and on the European coast, ranging from Norway 
to the Irish waters. A. leioglossa Val. is confined to the Medi- 
terranean, while A. sphyrena is found from the coast of Norway 
(where it is common in the fjords) as far as to the Mediterra- 
nean.*) This species exhibits a remarkable variation as to the 
number of vertebræ, the average number acc. to Schmidt being 
53.1 off Scotland, as against 51.6 on the north coast of Spain. 
)) It has not been recorded from the American side of the Atlantic. 
A. striata Goode & Bean is perhaps the American representative of A. sphy- 
raena. (Cir. my paper 1921 å p. 85). 
