DEEP-NOSED PIPEFISH. 
675 
f. Natnrg., Jahrg. 46, Bd. I (1880), p. 321; Mgr., Hist. 
Nat. Poiss. Fr., tom. II, p. 55; Mela, Vert. Fenn., p. 360, 
tab. X; Day, Fish. Gt. Brit ., Irel., vol. II, p. 257, tab. 
CXLIV, fig. 3; Mob., Hoke ( Siphonostcnnum ), Fisch. Osts., 
p. 102; Coll. ( Syngnathus ), N. Mag. Naturv. Christ., Bd. 29 
(1884), p. 113; Lillj. ( Biphonostoma ), Sverg., Norg. Fisk ., 
vol. Ill, p. 439. 
Byngnatlius acas, Ekstr., Vet. Akad Handl. 1831, p. 271, tab. 
II, figg. 1 et 2 ; Schagerstr., Physiogr. Sallsk. Tidskr., p. 
314; Malm ( Siphonostoma ), Gbgs , Boh. Fn., p. 592. 
The Deep-nosed Pipefish attains a length of 33 
cm., according to Yarreel. The largest Scandinavian 
specimen in the possession of the Royal Museum is a 
female 27 cm. long (from Norway, through Marklin); 
and according to Ekstrom the size of the species never 
exceeds 22 x / 4 cm. in the island-belt of Sodermanland. 
In form of body it is much the same as the Great 
Pipefish, the only difference being that it generally has 
a longer trunk and shorter tail. It thus represents in 
general the sexual characters that distinguish the fe- 
males. As a rule too, the depth of the body is some- 
what less; at the beginning of the tail it seldom (and 
only in the males and young specimens) exceeds 2 x / 2 
% of the length of the body". 
The plates of the body essentially correspond in 
form and arrangement to those of the two preceding 
species. As we have mentioned above, however, the 
foremost inferior plates, the lowest covering- plates of 
the shoulder-girdle, are more loosely attached to each 
other at the middle of the ventral side 6 , and the first 
ventral plate is nearly always wanting*. The first of 
the ventral plates that are present (corresponding to 
the second in the Great Pipefish), is also, as a rule, 
considerably reduced, so that a longitudinal, narrow 
strip, covered only with skin, is left behind the junc- 
ture on the ventral side of the plates belonging to the 
shoulder-girdle- Thus, as the last (and sometimes the 
penultimate) ring on the trunk is also without ventral 
plate, here as in the Great Pipefish, we find only 17 
(sometimes only 16) ventral plates, while the number 
of plates in the lower lateral row of the trunk is usu- 
ally 18. In the cases where the last-mentioned num- 
ber is 19, there are only 18 ventral plates; when it is 
17, we find, as a rule, only 16 of the latter. The so- 
called occipital plates are only slightly raised, and the 
anterior one is still smaller than in the Great Pipefish. 
The middle lateral carina of the trunk (the middle la- 
teral row of plates) as a rule forms a regular continua- 
tion of the carina curving downward in front from 
the upper lateral margin of the tail, and in this re- 
spect the Deep-nosed Pipefish thus represents the early 
stages of the two preceding forms. But it is not un- 
usual to find between the said carinee the same break 
here as in the Great Pipefish, the middle lateral carina 
of the trunk ending in the last ring of the trunk (see, 
for example, Plate XXIX, fig. 1), and the correspond- 
ing lateral carina of the tail beginning obliquely above 
this point, in the first caudal ring. We have never 
found the last-mentioned carina intrude within the last 
ring of the trunk. The marsupium of the males ex- 
tends, when fully developed, along 24 caudal rings, 
and attains a length more than double that of the head. 
The length of the head, as a rule greatest in young 
specimens, measures about 18 — 15 % of that of the 
body* 7 . The contour of the postorbital part of the head 
passes evenly into that of the forepart of the trunk. 
The occipital carina is not very prominent on the flat 
occiput, which slopes evenly and gradually in front into 
the slightly concave forehead, but is sharply marked off 
from the steeply sloping temples, this sharp break being 
formed on each side by the temporal carina running 
back from the upper orbital margin. The superior 
profile of the forehead and snout is also even, and the 
orbital margin rises hardly perceptibly above it. The 
praefrontal knob is elongated in an horizontal direction. 
The carinat of the snout are the same as in the Great 
Pipefish. The distinguishing character of the head of 
this species lies in the deep and strongly compressed 
form of the snout, when the mouth is closed, and also 
in the fact that at the ascending tip of the snout the 
lower jaw projects almost as far as the upper. When 
the month is wide open, the snout assumes the terete 
shape of a straight, cylindrical tube, only a little dis- 
tended in front. 
The length of the snout measures as a rule 60 — 63 
% of that of the head: but in young specimens (be- 
tween 6 and 7 cm. long) and exceptionally in adult 
ones this percentage may sink to 57 or even to 56. 
a 2'8 is the highest percentage we have found in this relation, and this in a male 247 mm. long. 
b Now and then these plates are so loosely joined that they are not even contiguous, being united merely by the skin. 
c It is present, however, in one of our largest specimens, from Norway. 
d According to A. H. Malm ( Om den brednabbade kantndlens utveckling ocli fortplantning , disp. Lund 1874, p. 4) the length of the 
head varies in the fry (12 — 43 mm. long) between about 1 / 6 and */- of that of the body. 
