180 
PACIFIC SCIENCE, Vol. XVIII, April 1964 
It is unnecessary to figure my 176-mm fish, 
for it has essentially the same features as the 
199-mm specimen shown by Matsubara and 
Iwai (1952:208). As noted earlier, it differs in 
having the second anal spine embedded. Other 
data from my specimen are as follows. The 
lower jaw has a rudimentary symphysial pad. 
1 or 2 anterior fangs on each side, and a row of 
17 lateral teeth set closely together like the teeth 
of a saw. On the premaxillary are 3 large ante- 
rior fangs and a row of 21 closely-spaced lateral 
teeth. The symphysial pad of the premaxillary 
is blunt, decurved, and scarcely noticeable. The 
roof of the mouth is overgrown by membranes 
which, when removed, reveal an edentulous 
vomer. There are 8 short, blunt denticles on 
each palatine. The gill-rakers consist of numer- 
ous spinules so variable in size, position, and 
spacing that they cannot be enumerated (cf 
Matsubara and Iwai, 1952:209). The specimen 
is partially skinned and the lateral line scales 
cannot be counted. 
Diplospinus multistriatus Maul 
Station 66 2 specimens: 103 and 166 mm 
Station 68 10 specimens: 10.0-17.4 mm 
Station 70 1 specimen: 156 mm 
The genus Diplospinus is known from Ma- 
deira, the West Indies, and the Philippine-East 
Indian region (Tucker, 1956:79). The above 
specimens are the first from the central Pacific 
Ocean. Postlarvae are hitherto unknown, al- 
though they and earlier stages have been found 
for other trichiurids (Delsman, 1927; Padoa, 
1956:508-513; Regan, 1916:144-145). The 
following descriptions and figures illustrate de- 
velopment in which a short, high-bodied post- 
larva becomes an increasingly attenuate juvenile. 
As pointed out by Tucker (1956:81). there 
is a possibility that Diplospinus multistriatus 
Maul is a synonym of Lepidopus gracilis Brauer. 
The latter was described from a specimen 69 
mm in length (Brauer, 1906:291), which differs 
from multistriatus chiefly in characters which 
change with growth. Although it was impossible 
to examine the type of gracilis , a brief study was 
made of a feature thought to distinguish it from 
multistriatus , the ratio of standard length to 
head length. This ratio is plotted against stand- 
ard length in Figure 7. The data represent the 
present specimens, the type series of multistria- 
tus as described by Maul ( 1948:45 ) , a recently 
collected 65-mm multistriatus with a SL/HL 
ratio of 5.5 (Maul, in litt. ) , and the type of 
gracilis. The curve was derived from the regres- 
sion of head length on standard length, Y = 
3.397 + 0.1350X, calculated from the above 
multistriatus. 
From Figure 7 it would seem that multistria- 
tus and gracilis are separate species. This is con- 
firmed by the fiducial limits of the head length 
of multistriatus 69 mm in standard length ( the 
length of Brauer’s gracilis) . At this size one can 
expect a head-length range of 12.3-13.1 mm, 
using P.o, values of t and the formula 
SY = 
Al 
1 x 2 
n Sx 2 
(Snedecor, 1946:120). The 14.25 -mm head 
Fig. 4. Nealotus tripes 15.6 mm in standard length. 
