LYCODOIIXS. 
(11 
with L. reticulatus' 1 . It also seems no easy task to 
distinguish from L. frig id us the specimen 56 cm. long 
that Gunther (1. c., p. 77 and Plate XIII) has referred 
to the last-mentioned species. 
On the coast of Scandinavia only three specimens, 
all young, have been found. At first two specimens, 
respectively 37 and 62 mm. in length, were taken in 
the month of June by the Norwegian Expedition of 
1887, on the banks off Helgeland and Lofoden, at depths 
of 350 and 457 fathoms and on a clayey bottom. A 
third specimen, 148 mm. in length, which is referred 
by the coloration to this species, but in other respects 
entirely agrees with the young of Lycodes Vahlii, was 
taken in 1889 by Dr. Carl Aurivillius, in between 10 
and 40 fathoms of water, on a clayey bottom at Orsta 
and Borsas in the inner part of Gullmar Fjord (Bohuslan). 
The other known specimens have been found in 260 — 
1,333 fathoms of water, off the extreme north of Nor- 
way, Bear Island, and Spitzbergen. Collett gives a 
list of a number of crustaceans and some parts of a 
cuttle-fish as having been found in the stomach of this 
species, and remarks that several of the former belonged 
to such species as generally live in the surface-regions 
of the open sea, but have thus been shown also to in- 
habit the deepest abysses of the ocean. All the spe- 
cimens taken by the Norwegian Expedition, except one, 
were caught in ice-cold water; and it was this circum- 
stance that suggested to Collett the name of frigidus. 
The expedition kept some of them alive for a, time in 
a vessel on board. These specimens were extremely 
sluggish, preferring to lie still at the bottom of the 
vessel and in a bent position, like that usually assumed 
by the Eelpout and the Sea-snails. When thrown 
into alcohol, however, they became extremely violent 
and proved, like most bottom-fishes, to be extraordi- 
narily tenacious of life. 
LYCODES RETICULATUS. 
Figs. 147 and 148. 
Coloration in the fry more or less light , brownish yellow , with selliform spots on the trunk and tail and a scuti- 
form figure, containing two light, fronted, spots , on the top of the head, in older specimens orange or paler, with 
light or even white transverse bands between the darker ones on the trunk, and tail and light or even 'white spots 
on the top of the head, in the oldest specimens of a more undiversified grayish brown , until the traces of the dark 
transverse bands on the sides and cdso the head, crossed by a network of black streaks. The covering of scales 
appears at different ages and occupies different extents of the body, but 'when complete extends over the greater 
part of the trunk and tail, and of the base of the dorsal fin, leaving the head, the belly, the base of the anal fin, 
and the anterior part of the base of the dorsal fin naked. One medio-lateral and one dor so -lateral line. ( both often 
indistinct). Depth of the body at the beginning of the anal fin about 9 — 14 % of its own length. Head depressed 
in front: its length more than 39 % (as a rule 42 — • 58 %) of the length of the tail from the beginning of the 
anal fin to the tip of the last fin-rays. 
R. hr. 6; D. (80) 91—95; .4. (63) 70—78; P. (16) 19—23; 
V. 4; Vert. 95—97 (= 23— 25 -Kr). 
Syn. Lycodes reticulatus, Rhdt, D. Vid. Seisk. Naturv., Math. Afh. 
Kbhvn, vol. 7, p. 167, tab. VI; Gthr, Cat. Brit. Mas., Fish., 
vol. IV, p. 320; Coll., Forh. Vid. Seisk. Christ. 1878, No. 
14, p. 59; Ltkn, Vid. Meddel. Naturli. For. Kbhvn 1879 — - 
1880, pp. 318 et 330; Gthr, Deep 6'ea Fish., Chalk Exped., 
part. LVII (Zook, vol. XXII), p. 77, tab. XIII; Ltkn, Dijmphna- 
Togt. Zook Bot. Udb., p. 136, tab. XVII, figs. 4 — 5. 
An estimates of the averages, according to Collett’s measurements of these specimens, gives the following results: 
Average in: 
Length of the 
body varying 
between 118 
and 238 min. 
Length of the 
body varying 
between 270 
and 570 mm. 
6 specimens. 
9 specimens. 
Length of the head in % of the length of the body 
22.2 
24.8 
Depth of the body at the beginning of the dorsal fin „ ,, „ ., ., „ „ ,, 
10.7 
14.0 
Distance between the dorsal fin and t he tip of the snout ,, ,, ,, .. ,, ., 
25. « 
30.2 
., „ „ vent ,, „ ,, ,, „ „ „ „ „ ,, „ ,, ,, ,, 
39.5 
44.5 
Length of the head in % of the distance between the vent and the tip of the last fin-rays 
37.o 
44.7 
