280 



NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF FISHES. 

 By J. Douglas Ogilby. 



SILURID^. 



Arius peoximus, sp.nov. 



D. i 7, 0. A. IG. 



Depth of body 4, length of head 3 in the total length; width 

 of head | of its length, the upper profile undulating and moderately- 

 oblique. Eye with free lid, its diameter 6 in the length of the 

 head and 2^ in that of the snout, which is rounded and If times 

 as wide as long. Interorbital region gently rounded, its width 

 considerably more than that of the mouth and If in the length 

 of the head. Premaxillary teeth in a continuous band, which is 

 deeply emarginate behind, obliquely truncated at the extremities, 

 and six times as long as wide; mandibular band divided, gradually 

 tapering from the symphysis; vomerine patches well developed, 

 nearly square, confluent with one another and with the palatine 

 patches, which are triangular, divergent posteriorly, a little longer 

 than wide, and as wide as the united vomerine patches. Maxillary 

 barbel | of the length of the head, not extending directly back- 

 wards to the margin of the opercle; postmental barbel ^ of the 

 maxillary, inserted behind and outside the mental, which does 

 not nearly reach the gill-opening. Cranial shield finely and 

 irregularly granular, the granulation extending to the supraorbital 

 region, but not nearly to the gill-opening. Nuchal shield evenly 

 granular, its greatest width but little less than its length, which 

 is 3^ in its distance from the tip of the snout; outer border deeply 

 concave, the hinder emarginate. Dorsal plate moderate, crescentic, 

 granular, its mesial length 5^ in that of the nuchal shield, with 

 which it is in contact. Fontanelle inconspicuous; occipital groove 

 deep and long, extending from between the posterior third of the 

 eyes to the nuchal shield. Opercle smooth. Lateral line without 



