BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
72 
paired fins long; 'gillrakers minute; no pseudobranchiae; no air-bladder; sides and belly with very 
many small luminous spots; a small luminous patch below eye. Small fishes of the deep sea, remark¬ 
able for their strong teeth, the lower jaw much stronger than in Malacosteus. The single Hawaiian 
species is fully described in Section II. 
Family XXIV. STOMIATIILE. 
Body elongate, tapering, naked or covered with very thin and deciduous scales; head oblong; 
snout short and rounded; eyes large and far forward; opercular apparatus imperfectly developed; 
mouth enormous, with deep lateral cleft; lateral margin of upper jaw formed by maxillary and pro¬ 
vided with teeth along the edges; teeth usually strong, unequal, some of them often fang-like or 
barbed; gill-membranes not joined, free from the isthmus; branchiostegals numerous (12 to 17); a 
long barbel at throat; no pseudobranchise; dorsal fin short, median or posterior, without spines; anal 
free, far behind and small; caudal distinct; pectorals low down on the scapular arch and narrow; 
ventrals inserted far backward; stomach ccecal, and pyloric appendages absent; sides with phospho¬ 
rescent spots; skeleton feebly ossified; eggs extruded through oviducts. Deep-sea fishes of extremely 
voracious habits. 
The single Hawaiian genus and species of this family are fully described in Section II. 
Family XXV. PARALEP1DID/E. 
Body elongate, somewhat compressed, formed much as in a barracuda, covered with cycloid scales 
of moderate or rather large size; head long, usually scaly on the sides; mouth very large; lower jaw 
projecting; premaxillary not protractile, very long and slender, forming the entire margin of upper 
jaw; maxillary long and slender, closely adherent to premaxillary; teeth rather strong, pointed, in 
single series on the jaws and palatines; some of them on lower jaw and palatines sometimes very long 
and fang-like, and most of them freely depressible; opercular bones thin; pseudobranch ire present; 
gill-membranes separate, free from the isthmus; branchiostegals about 7; gillrakers short, sharp, spine¬ 
like; eye large; lateral line present, its scales usually enlarged; dorsal fin short and small, behind the 
middle of the body, nearly or quite over the ventrals; adipose fin present; anal fin low, rather long; 
caudal fin short, narrow, forked; pectorals rather small, placed low; pyloric creca none; no air-bladder; 
phosphorescent spots few or none. Voracious fishes of the open seas or the deep seas. 
The single Hawaiian genus and species of this family are fully described in Section II. 
Family XXVI. STERNOPTYCHII).E. 
Fishes “ with compressed, ventradiform body, carinated contour, deeply and obliquely cleft and 
subvertical mouth, whose upper margin is constituted by the supramaxillaries as well as the intermax- 
illaries; branehiostegal arch near and parallel with lower jaw, scapular with an inferior projection, 
and with one or more of the neural spines abnormally developed, and projecting above the back in 
advance of the dorsal fin.” (Gill. ) 
Genera 2, species about 10; deep-sea fishes, rising toward the surface at night or in stormy 
weather. 
a. Body covered with large, very thin, deciduous scales; no anterior spinous dilatation of the dorsal fin. Polyipnus, p. 72 
aa. Body mostly scaleless, covered with a silvery pigment; dorsal fin of a triangular bony lamella, very thiu in front, but 
strengthened along its hind margin, followed by several rays. Sternoptyx, p. 73 
Genus 39. POLYIPNUS Gunther. 
This genus differs from Sternoptyx in having the body covered with large, very thin, and deciduous 
scales, and in lacking the anterior spinous dilatation of the dorsal fin. Three species known. 
Only one species of this genus known from the Hawaiian Islands. (See Section II. ) 
Polyipnus Gunther, Rept. Deep-Sea Fishes, Challenger, XXII, 170, 1887 ( spinosus ). 
