DEC. 28, 1916. FISHES OF PANAMA MEEK AND HILDEBRAND. 255 



inward near the tips; premaxillaries and the dentaries of about equal 

 width; mandibular ramus about equal in length to interorbital width, 

 3.25 to 4 in length of head; interopercle freely movable, bearing about 

 8 enlarged spines and several short ones, the longest spine usually 

 reaching lower third and occasionally to the middle of pectoral; head 

 and snout without prominent ridges or carinations; scutes on body 

 spinulose, but not carinate; ventral surface of head and abdomen naked, 

 also nearly the entire ventral surface of caudal peduncle, the median line 

 posteriorly crossed by a single scute; occipital bordered by 2 scutes; 

 3 median scutes in advance of dorsal; dorsal fin moderately elevated, 

 the spine 1.65 to 2.15 in head, its origin a little in advance of ventrals, 

 nearer tip of snout than base of caudal; base of dorsal about equal to 

 length of snout; adipose fin wanting; caudal peduncle above with a low 

 keel; caudal fin obliquely truncate, the lower rays the longest; anal fin 

 wanting; ventral fins moderately developed, equal to or slightly longer 

 than snout; pectoral fins large, reaching base of anal in young, and to 

 or past middle of ventrals in adult. 



Color dark gray above; pale below. Fins with dark spots on rays, 

 most numerous on dorsal and caudal on which they form more or less 

 distinct bars. 



There are at hand 52 specimens of this species. They vary in length 

 from 25 to 75 mm. All are from small mountain streams near Cana in 

 the upper Rio Tuyra Basin. 



11. Genus Loricaria Linnaeus. 



Loricaria Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. X, 1758, 307; Bleeker, Nederl. 

 Tijdschr. Dierk., I, 1863, 80 (type Loricaria dura Linnaeus ^Lori- 

 caria cataphracta Linnaeus). 



Body elongate, usually depressed throughout; snout pointed or 

 rounded; ventral surface flat, the abdomen wholly or in part covered 

 with bony or granular plates, or sometimes with small granules or 

 entirely naked; orbit with posterior notch; teeth bifid, not setiform, in 

 small or moderate numbers; caudal fin emarginate, one or both of the 

 outer rays often produced. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES. 



a. Ventral surface of abdomen completely armed with bony plates. 



b. Lateral keels 2, becoming united on the i$th or i6th scute; pre- 

 dorsal scutes feebly carinate; abdomen with several series of small 

 plates between the enlarged lateral ones; no naked area behind 

 pectoral; maxillary barbel shorter than eye. uracantha, p. 256. 



