PROCEEDINGS OF THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM issued |mi'?(V>L.s)^Mh ^^ '^* SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM Vol. 97 Washington : 1947 No. 3211 A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF DEEP-SEA FISH OF THE FAMILY MYCTOPHIDAE FROM THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS By Robert R. Miller The depths of the oceans have yielded forms of life that have long been of interest to biologists and that have fascinated scientists and laymen alike. A great variety of deep-sea fishes has been described, many of them grotesque in form and provided with highly specialized organs that adapt them for life in utter darkness. Our knowledge of a considerable number of these fishes is based only on single speci-mens, and quite often these were imperfect. Hence the precise systematic position of some genera, and even families, is not uncom-monly in doubt (Chapman, 1939, p. 508; Parr, 1945, p. 127; Myers, 1946). The novelty about to be described was collected by the Albatross during 1908-1909, on her Philippine cruise, and is based upon 31 specimens of graded sizes, a number of which are nearly perfectly preserved. This fortunate circumstance has permitted a far more complete description than is usually possible with deep-sea forms. Although taken nearly three-fourths of a mile beneath the surface, tliis fish shows few adaptations for abyssal life. SOLIVOMER, new genus Genotype. — Solivomer arenidens, new species. Diagnosis. — Body elongate, moderately compressed, broadly oval in cross section, widest across head, deepest just behind occiput, from which it tapers gradually to caudal fin. Scales on body large (41 734131—47 SI
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