215 
of the Bay of Bengal. 
large. Mouth small, completely inferior, the infraorbital 
ridge being most distinct ; the maxilla reaches a short way 
behind the vertical through the anterior border of the orbit. 
Teeth in broad bands in both jaws, villiform in the lower, 
cardiform in the upper. Barbel barely one fourth the length 
of the eye. 
Gill-opening narrow, the gill-membranes being broadly 
united ; synarthrosis of first branchial arch and gill-cover 
very broad ; gill-laminae narrow ; oro-pharyngobranchial 
cavity uniformly deeply pigmented. 
Body and head, except the jaws and the glosso-hyal region, 
covered with spinigerous, imbricating, rather deciduous scales. 
Those on the body are of uniform large size of an inch in 
either diameter), imbricate in the anterior two thirds and 
upper and lower fifth, and longitudinally fluted throughout 
their free portion, the ridges between the grooves bearing 
spinelets along the greater part of their length. On a scale 
from the flank there are usually thirteen such ridges, of which 
all but the outermost are spiny, the spinelets of the central 
ridge being superior in size to all the others, and they 
alone project beyond the edge of the scale. The lateral line 
runs five rows of scales below the origin of the first dorsal 
fin. 
First dorsal spine rudimentary ; the second prolonged into 
a filament and almost as long as the head, its front edge 
armed with about thirty decumbent spinelets; the second 
dorsal fin begins about a snout-length behind the first, its 
rays being very inconspicuous. Pectoral short, its length 
being less than half that of the head ; somewhat rounded. 
Yentrals with the first ray prolonged into a filament, the 
entire ray being nearly as long as the second dorsal ray. 
Stomach siphonal. Intestine long and much coiled ; nine 
pyloric appendages. A large air-bladder. 
Colours in the fresh state: — Chocolate; the jaws, gill- 
covers, belly, and fins black. 
Total length 14^ inches. 
Hab. Vide Station 97. One specimen. 
Maerurus Hoshynii — named after the accomplished Super- 
intendent of the Indian Marine Survey — appears to be allied to 
Maerurus asper and to be one of the known bathybial Macruri. 
It is the deepest-water species yet obtained in the Bay of 
Bengal, and it seems significant that it is the largest. The 
specimen described emitted a powerful and disagreeable musky 
odour when in the fresh state. 
16 * 
