74 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
intervals along its lower edge; gill-slits 5.4 in head, entirely inferior, converging anteriorly where they 
are very narrowly separated; skin over branchial chambers with longitudinal plications. 
Color in spirits: Everywhere pale-green, without evident markings; traces of a faint yellowish 
area on side of head, in front of occiput, and on snout; tip of snout a little darker. 
One specimen, the type (No. 4952G U.S.N.M.) 11.25 inches long, dredged in 4 fathoms at Fish 
Hawk Station 6065, off Mayaguez, Porto Rico, January 20. 
Genus 15. MYRICHTHYS Girard. 
\ 
Teeth mostly blunt and molar; pectoral fins small; dorsal beginning on head before gill-opening; 
otherwise essentially as in Ophichthus. Coloration variegated. Species numerous, found in most trop- 
ical seas. Only one of the three American species known from Porto Rico. 
a. Spots on body large, black, most of them with a distinct pale center, the ground-color paler oculatus, 17 
aa. Spots on body large, round, nearly whitish in color, the ground-color dark acuminatus 
17. Myrichthys oculatus (Kaup). 
Head 4.2 in trunk (tip of snout to vent); eye 2.5 in snout; interorbital 6 in head, slightly shorter 
than snout; cleft of mouth 3.25 in head. 
Body scaleless, very slender, tail tapering to a point, without caudal fin; dorsal and anal fins not 
continuous around it; dorsal low, commencing on head far in advance of gill-opening, extending almost 
to tip of tail; anal similar, shorter and lower; pectoral reduced to a thin, narrow, membranaceous flap 
immediately behind gill-opening; anterior profile of head straight, making an angle of 45° with the 
horizontal mouth; eye very small; nostril tubular, on side of tip of snout; lower jaw considerably 
the shorter, upper overhanging, exposing some of the teeth, which are all small, molar, and scarcely 
elevated. 
Color in spirits: Body grayish, trunk paler below; side with two rows of about 35 large roundish 
black spots not sharply circumscribed, the center of each with a small pale spot, upper row close to 
dorsal fin, other row just below, the spots above alternating with those below; a large dark spot on 
the head in front of the dorsal; lower jaw and snout with numerous much smaller dark spots, some 
of these with a pale center; dorsal with dark-brown edge and many diffuse blotches of same; anal pale, 
unmarked. 
Tropical Atlantic, Cuba to Surinam, and Cape Verde Islands. One specimen, nearly 2 feet lg,on 
collected at Hucares, Porto Rico. 
Pisoodonophis oculatus Kaup, Apodes, 22, 1856, Curasao. 
Ophisurus latimaculatus Poey, Repertorio, II, 252, pi. 3, fig. 1, 1867, Cuba. 
Ophichthys latimaculatus, Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 345, 1881. 
Myrichthys oculatus, Jordan & Evernmnn, 1. c., 376, 1896. 
