584 
Lepidosoma RISSO, in Swainson, Nat. Hist. Animals, vol. 2, p. 
261, 1838. (Type Lepidoleprus trachyrinches RISSO, monotypic.) 
Body compressed, with short trunk: and rather short tapering tail. 
Head large, conic, about wide as deep. Snout greatly extended forward in 
long sharp point and sharp lateral edge extends straight along suborbital. 
Eye advanced, usually mth large orbit. Mouth inferior, small. Teeth in 
jaws in villiform bands, none on palate. Barbel present. Opercle small. 
Gill membraxj.es scarcely united. Gills 4. Scales moderate, spinescent. 
Second dorsal well developed. Anal low throughout. Paired fins small, 
ventral often with long slender first ray. 
Species few, noted especially for the row of large spine-like 
scales extending along each side of base of both dorsal and anal fins. The 
large orbit and prominent lateral ridges along the sides and front of the 
head, render a physiognomy extreme in appearance among the macrurids. 
Oxycephus scabrus RAFINESQUE, Indice Ittiol. Sicil., p. 13, pi. 
1, fig. 2, 1810 (type locality: Sicily). 
Trachyrhynchus scabrus GOODE and BEAN, Oceanic Ichth., p. 419, pi. 
fig. 349, 1895 (copied). —BRAUER, Deutsch. Tiefsee 
Exped. Valdivia, vol. 15, p. 392, 1906 (reference). 
