Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from The Fauna and Geography of the Maldive and Laccadive Archipelagoes, Vol. 1: Being the Account of the Work Carried on and of the Collections Made by an Expedition During the Years 1899 and 1900; Part IV; With Plates XVIII-XXV and Text-Illustrations 76-119
The only point in which the Maldivan and W. Indian forms consistently differ from one another is in their size. The average length of the Maldivan specimens is 23 mm., the extremes being 18 and 30 mm., thus being nearly double the length of the Bahama specimens which Andrews found to average 13 mm. In spite of this difference the average myotome formula for the two forms remains practically the same, the mode in each case being 66 myotomes, i.e. 44 from the head to the atriopore, 9 from the atriopore to the 'anus, and 13 from the anus to the tail.
The most prominent external feature of the species is the long caudal extremity which at once differentiates it from all other known forms of Cephalochorda. There is a narrow rostral fin round the anterior end of the notochord, which projects some 2 mm. Beyond the end of the first myotome. This is continued dorsally as a low fin running the whole length of the body to the tip of the caudal extremity. Owing to the taper of the body the fin is rather deeper for the last fifteen myotomes (i.a. From about the level of the anus to the caudal extremity). From the last myotome to the tip of the tail it narrows down to a point.
The ventral fin is a continuation of the right metapleural fold, and like the dorsal fin it also broadens out for the last fifteen myotomes, though somewhat deeper than the last named. It bends up suddenly at the last myotome, and becomes the ventral part of the narrow tapering caudal fin. The depth of the dorsal and ventral halves of the latter fin is the same.
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