. Text-fig. 9. a, transverse section through the trunk muscles of Anotopterus pharao, showing the intermuscular bones (imb.) (x9'3); b, some of the larger intermuscular bones associated with the first three vertebrae of Omosudis lowei (x io-6) = dorsal ligament. Distensibility of stomach and body-zuall Evermannella, Omosudis, Anotopterus and Alepisaurus are among the alepisauroids capable of swallowing very large prey. Alcock (1899) has a drawing of Evermannella atrata very much distended with a large squid, while in the Discovery Collections there is a specimen of E. indica with a gono-
. Text-fig. 9. a, transverse section through the trunk muscles of Anotopterus pharao, showing the intermuscular bones (imb.) (x9'3); b, some of the larger intermuscular bones associated with the first three vertebrae of Omosudis lowei (x io-6) = dorsal ligament. Distensibility of stomach and body-zuall Evermannella, Omosudis, Anotopterus and Alepisaurus are among the alepisauroids capable of swallowing very large prey. Alcock (1899) has a drawing of Evermannella atrata very much distended with a large squid, while in the Discovery Collections there is a specimen of E. indica with a gono- stomatid fish folded up in its stomach, the length of the prey being appreciably longer than the length of the predator's abdomen. The capacity of Omosudis for swallowing large prey is well known since Gunther's (1887) account of a Sternoptyx in the stomach of one individual, victim and predator being equal in bulk. Anotopterus also has a highly distensible stomach and body-wall, as the presence of two large Notolepis coatsi in the specimen described earlier (p. 321) must indicate. Alepisaurus is a highly voracious fish with a comparable capacity for dealing with large prey: in the collections of the Natural History Museum there is an A. ferox considerably distended, having swallowed one of its own kind. There is no record of a scopelarchid or a paralepidid containing large prey (although I have seen many Notolepis coatsi, each somewhat distended by a stomach crammed with Euphausia superba) and it is interesting that of all the families of alepisauroid fishes, the scopelarchids and paralepidids are the only ones containing species which are fully scaled. Most probably all the scopelarchids are fully scaled, while among the paralepidids this condition obtains in Magnisudis, Paralepis and Notolepis only (Harry, 1953 a, b).
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