936 
SCANDINAVIAN FISHES. 
nearer to the Herrings, and in luminousness they 
are generally less developed. Several of them are 
destitute of luminous spots, and the spots in the rows 
most regularly present, the ventral, are here, as a rule, 
smaller and simpler, whereas the spots of more irregular 
occurrence are sometimes highly developed. Most of 
these fishes have marked predatory habits, but in this 
respect they are surpassed by the fourth subfamily, 
the Chauliodontince, which are distinguished by the 
large canine teeth in the mouth, and which in the 
situation of the ventral fins more nearly approach 
to the preceding subfamily. The situation and deve- 
lopment of the true dorsal fin separate this subfamily, 
as well as the others, from the Paralepidince, where 
the said fin is small and set far back, and from the 
Alepisaurince, where the dorsal fin extends almost 
throughout the dorsal margin. 
The name of Saurince has been coined by Gun- 
ther", after Sauries , a genus of extensive range in the 
Mediterranean and the tropics. The subfamily is the 
richest in forms among the Scopeloids, containing 
about 50 species, which are distributed among 12 ge- 
nera, with or without luminous spots, most of them 
belonging to the deep-sea fauna, and some being pe- 
lagic fishes. Within the Scandinavian fauna there 
occur only two species of the 
Genus MYGTOPHUM. 
Body Herring- shaped, laterally compressed , covered with 
As a generic name need only be a name, and ac- 
cording to the rules of the current nomenclature must 
be recognised as such, even if it must be condemned 
on linguistic principles, the name of Myctophum has 
the right of priority, though its formation is erro- 
neous or the result of a misprint. Nyctophus b , the 
name which Cocco afterwards c suggested as the cor- 
rect one, was probably the form which Rafinesque^ 
rather large scales , and furnished with luminous spots. 
intended to write; but an alteration seems hardly ne- 
cessary. The genus has been best known under the 
name of Scopelus (Cuvier, 1 8 1 7 e ) , from which the name 
of the whole family has been coined, though as a ge- 
neric name it must be rejected. 
The genus contains about twenty species of noc- 
turnal surface-fishes from the open seas of tropical and 
temperate latitudes. 
“ Cat. Brit. Mus., Fish., vol. V, p. 394. 
b Night-light, Gr. vt'% and (ftog. 
c N. Ann. Sc. Nat., An. 1, Torn. II (Bologna 1838), p. 180. 
d Bid. d’lttinl. Sicil., 1810. 
e Regne Animal, ed. 1, tom. II, p. 169. 
