Beebe, William "A New Deep-Sea Fish," Bulletin of the New York Zoological Society, Vol. 35, No. 5 (1932)

On the twentieth dive in the Bathysphere, at a depth of 2100 feet, we saw two large, elongate, barracuda-shaped fish, which twice passed within eight feet of the windows, once partly through the beam of our electric light. These were at least six feet in length.

No direct lights were visible on the head, yet the rather large eyes and the faint outline were distinct. There was a single row of strong, pale blue lights along the side, large and not far from twenty in number. The mouth, with strongly undershot jaw, and numerous fangs illumined either by mucous or indirect internal lights along the brachiostegals.

The fish reminded me in general of barracudas, with deeper jaws open all the time. Posterially placed vertical fins were seen when they passed through the electric beam. There were two ventral tentacles, each tipped with a pair of separate, luminous bodies, the superior reddish, the lower one blue. These twitched and jerked along beneath the fish, one undoubtedly arising from a mental base, the other so far back that its origin must have been at the anal fin. Neither the stem of the tentacles nor paired fins were distinguishable.

I assume from the position of the vertical fins and the general facies, that the position of the fish must be somewhere near the Melanostomiatidae, but the single line of large, lateral photophores and the two ventral tentacles set it apart from any known species or genus.

The depth was 2100 feet, the date September 22nd, 1932, the position 32°17' No. Lat., 64°36' West Long., 5 miles southeast of Nonsuch Island, Bermuda.

Relying on this recognizable diagnosis I propose for it the name of Bathysphaera intacta, the Untouchable Bathysphere Fish.

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