FISHES OF HAWAIIAN ISLANDS. 
81 
Color in alcohol, pale olive, the tail nearly white. 
The description is from the type, No. 50863, U. S. Nat. Mus., 14.45 inches long. Two examples 
from off the northeast coast of Hawaii. One from station 4055, depth 50 to 60 fathoms (cotype, 7509, 
L. S. Jr. Univ. Mus.), measures 9.6 inches. The head 17 in length, 10 in head and trunk. In life it 
was pinkish anteriorly, the posterior third tinged with lemon-yellow. The other specimen, from sta¬ 
tion 4061, depth 24 to 83 fathoms, measures 8.66 inches; head 15.4 in length, 8.3 in head and trunk. 
In life the color was light orange, fading to lemon-yellow posteriorly; an indistinct, light, median, 
dorsal stripe extending from occiput to tip of tail; ventral surface slightly tinged with purple, the tint 
extending about twice the length of head beyond anal opening; side of head with 2 white spots, the 
anterior one just behind eyes, the posterior one indistinctly connected over the occiput with its fellow 
on opposite side. 
Sphagebranchus f.avintudus Snyder, Bull, r S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Jan. 19, 1901), 016, pi. 2. fig. 1. Albatross Station 
3874, between Mauai and Lanai, in 21 to 28 fathoms. 
Genus 48. LEIURANUS Bleeker. 
Body cylindrical; mouth small, below the sharp, projecting snout;, teeth pointed, of moderate 
size, uniserial in jaws; no teeth on vomer; eye small; pectoral small; dorsal and anal low, the former 
beginning nearly above gill-opening. 
Small eels, having the bright colors of Chlevastes, but in technical respects nearer Ophichthus, 
distinguished by the absence of vomerine teeth. 
Leiuranus Bleeker, Verb. Bat. Gen. Marten., XXV, 24, 36, 1853 ( lacepedii=scniicinctus ). 
Stethopterus Bleeker, op. cit., 21, 1853 ( vimiitcus=scmicinctus ). 
35. Leiuranus semicinctus (Lay & Bennett). 
Head 6.25 in trunk; tail a little longer than trunk without head; eye about 2 in snout, 1.67 in 
interorbital space; snout about 6 in head; interorbital space 7.3; mouth from tip of snout 3.5; pectoral 
about 7. 
Body more or less rounded and rather slender, the tail tapering posteriorly to a conical horny 
point; head pointed, rather thick and swollen; snout short, depressed, flattened, and shark-like in 
appearance, with the edges more or less thin; eyes small, and placed wholly before the corners of 
mouth; teeth in jaws in a single series, pointed, and hooked backward; no vomerine teeth; tongue 
adnate to floor of mouth, small; mandible small, its tip, when mouth is closed, very much nearer 
anterior margin of eye than tip of snout; anterior nostrils in small tubes, inferior, on lower surface of 
snout and opening downward; posterior nostrils large, in the lips, and opening downward; interorbital 
space very slightly convex, nearly flat; skin smooth; the head about the branchial region more or 
less wrinkled; head w ith a few mucous pores, those in the lateral series from head about 147; origin 
of dorsal about over middle of pectoral; dorsal and anal low; pectoral small and short. 
Color in alcohol, whitish, with 24 deep brown broad cross-blotches, the first 2 on top of head 
much narrower than the others, those on trunk becoming narrower, most of them anteriorly not 
meeting below, and those on tail meeting more or less perfectly below; tips of snout and tail white. 
This species was not obtained by us in Hawaii, but it has been recorded from those islands by 
Lay and Bennett, by Fowler, and by Snyder. The above description is based upon a specimen (No. 6642, 
Stanford University Museum) 17.5 inches long, obtained bv Jordan and Snyder at Yaeyama, Ishigaka 
Islands, in the southern Riu Kiu Archipelago. It was also found by Jordan and Kellogg at Samoa. 
Ophisurus semiriitclus Lay & Bennett, Zool. Capt. Beecliey’s Voyage, 66, pi. XX, tig. 4, 1839. Oahu. 
Opliisarus (SphagebranChus) vimineus Richardson, Voy. Sulphur, 107, pi. LII, figs. 16-20, 1843, China. 
Ophisurus vimineus Richardson, Ichth. China, 314,1846, China (Coll. Sir Edward Belcher). 
Stethopterus vimineus , Bleeker, Verb. Bat. Gen.. XXV. 24, 18.33 (Sibogha; Sumatra). 
Leiuranus lacepcdii Bleeker, op. cit., 36, 1853, Sibogha; Sumatra. 
Leiuranus colubrinus Kaup, Cat. Apod. Fish., 2, 1856, Java: Bleeker, Atlas Ichth., IV, 42, pi. IX, fig. 1, part. 1864 (East 
Indies). 
Ophisurus multizonus Cuvier in Kaup, 1. c. (name only), China, Mauritius, and Malayan Archipelago. 
Liuranus semicinctus , Gunther, Cat., VIII, 51, 1870 (East Indies; Fiji Islands; China). 
Leiuranus semicinctus, Fowler, Proe. Ac. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1900, 491 (Hawaiian Islands); Jordan A Snyder, Proc. U. s. Nat. 
Mus., XXIII, 1901. 866 (Yaeyama, Ishigaka Islands, Japan); Snyder, Bull. U. S. Fish Comm., XXII, 1902 (Jan. 19. 
1904), 516 (Honolulu). 
F. C. B. 1903—6 
