924 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
Subfamily STERNOPTYCHINJE. 
Body of a singular irregular form. , deep and compressed , especially in the abdominal part , ivhose sharp ventral 
margin is abruptly cut off by a posteriorly ascending break ( postabdominal pari) from the under surface of the 
tail. Cleft of the mouth sharply ascending. Snout shorter than the postorbital part of the head. 
By its singular form of body, deep as that of the 
Dory or the thinnest Carangoids, but with an abrupt- 
break in the inferior protile between the abdominal 
and caudal regions, this subfamily is so well distin- 
guished from all other fishes that no detailed diagnosis 
can be necessary. The resemblance in the form of the 
body to Zeus (see above, p. 305, note a), and the si- 
milar structure of the ventral margin in Trachichthys, 
a Berycoid form (see Lowe, Fish. Madeir p. 64), 
have suggested that these fishes should be included 
among the Acanthopterygians. But merely their lu- 
minous spots and the distribution thereof ought, at the 
first glance, to assign them to their right place, beside 
the other Scopeloids. Only four species, distributed 
among three genera, are known with certainty. All 
are nocturnal surface-fishes, which by day descend to 
some depth below the surface, but at night ascend to 
higher strata,. They belong to the basins both of the 
Atlantic and the Pacific, strictly to the warmer regions 
thereof; but on the Norwegian coast is occasionally 
found a species of the 
Genus ARGYROPELECUS h 
Forepart of the back surmounted by an erect, thin and transparent, osseous structure, resembling a dorsal fin, 
and composed of the neural spines of the anterior abdominal vertebrce and their chondrified interspaces. 
Jaiv-teeth set in one row. 
Of this genus, which is known exclusively from 
the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, Valenciennes 6 
has indeed adopted four species; but two of them are 
known only from his somewhat defective descrip- 
tions, and the other two come extremely near to each 
other. 
a Cocco, Giorn. Scienc., Lett., Art. Sic., No. 77, Palermo 1829. The name signifies, according to Agassiz, with silver helmet (ccq- 
yvqog, silver, and 7zrfrf„ helmet). To Cocco’s paper we have not been able to refer. 
b Cuv., Val., Hist. Nat. Poiss., tom. XXII, pp. 392, scqq. 
