90 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
A specimen 74 mm. long from New Providence ( Albatross , surface), which has undergone a 
partial metamorphosis, seems to be referable to this species. The leptocephalous teeth have been lost, 
the snout has become rounded, and the alimentary canal shorter. Body long and band-shaped, taper- 
ing gradually from head to midway between caudal and anus; depth about 11 in length; head small, 
about 16 in length of body; snout rounded; lower jaw shorter than upper; mouth extending beyond 
eye; pectorals well developed; eye 1.5 in snout, about 5 in head; dorsal beginning in posterior fourth 
of alimentary canal, increasing in height to caudal; anal similar to dorsal; one or two chromatophores 
below pectoral; a series of six spots along alimentary canal, a few cells scattered between them; a series 
of spots along base of anal and caudal; a few spots on caudal and a few along the bases of last dorsal 
rays; sides with an irregular series of spots on the myocomma, each spot, composed of from one to three 
chromatophores, which are expanded on surface over the myocomma rather than in them, as in 
the younger specimens; two minute chromatophores on one side of head. 
Leptocephalus mucronatus, sp. nov. Figs. 11, I la, 115. 
Specimen No. 1, 75 mm. long; No. 2, 80 mm. long; No. 3, 82 mm. long. Albatross station 2575, 
lat.. 38° 25 / north, long. 72° 40' west. 
This species differs from all others in our collections, or in descriptions accessible to us, in its 
suddenly contracted or mucronate tail, the fin folds being imperfectly continued around it, and by the 
greater pigmentation. The specimens appear to have reached the point of metamorphosis, the head 
being well round and conical, but the leptocephalous dentition .persists. Elongate band-shaped, the 
body tapering gradually to about midway between anus and tip of caudal; depth, 11.5; head, 14.33; 
eye small, 2.66 in snout, 9 to base of pectoral; nostrils remote from each other by a distance equal to 
diameter of eye; pectorals well developed; gill slit nearly vertical; somites 66-f-80; tongue not free 
in front. 
