. Chimæroid fishes and their development. Fishes; Chimaeridae. "^^^^. n CHIMERA AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS. Iq SEXUAL DIFFERENCES. In li\ ing specimens it is surprisingly difficult to distinguish the sexes (C collici). The secondary sexual characters of the male are then inconspicuous, and one is apt to identify it rather by its smaller size and by its slightly darker tone. Breeding colors are not marked, but at the time of siiawning the female shows considerable color in the anal and caudal regions, the fins especially being suffused with blood. In males, those, it appears, are in breeding
. Chimæroid fishes and their development. Fishes; Chimaeridae. "^^^^. n CHIMERA AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS. Iq SEXUAL DIFFERENCES. In li\ ing specimens it is surprisingly difficult to distinguish the sexes (C collici). The secondary sexual characters of the male are then inconspicuous, and one is apt to identify it rather by its smaller size and by its slightly darker tone. Breeding colors are not marked, but at the time of siiawning the female shows considerable color in the anal and caudal regions, the fins especially being suffused with blood. In males, those, it appears, are in breeding colors in which the anterior rim of the pelvic fins and the ante- rior region of the pectoral fins are the whitest. It is difficult to distinguish the claspers. '\'\\v frontal organ is folded neatly away below the surface of the head ; the mixipterygia are closely apposed to the trunk, hardly mod- ifying the contour of this region; the anteropelvic claspers are tucked into their dermal pouch, and the mouth of the pouch is nearly closed. In the female a Heshy pad lies in the median ventral line behind the pelvic fins, and ]n'o- duces a contour not unlike that of the combined mixii)te- rygia. Closer examination shows slight difierences in the proportions of male and female; thuslc/. fig. i )in tlu' male the eye is relatively of larger size, the snout nn)re obtuse, the fins shorter and wider, the dental plates smaller and often distinguishable in shajK\ Dental plates.—In C. colliei the mandibular dental ))lates of the female do not usually exhibit as marked a prong in the "canine" region as the males. Nine such ]>lates are shown in fig. 5 a-i, sketched from jaws of adult females selected at random, and these may be cc^ntrasted with theeommon type of the mandibular plate of the male outlined in fig. 5 j and Cireat variation is, however, apparent in both cases. Of the nine jtlates figured, four (a, c, k, \) have no conspicuous "canine " [irong, two have
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1900, booksubjectfishes, bookyear1906
