Vol. XXIII, pp. 141-152 September 2, 1910 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE SCAI.ES OF THE AFRICAX CYPRINIT) FISHE^; ' ^ ^ 

 WITH A DISCUSSION OF RELATED ASIATIC 



AND EUROPEAN SPECIES. ^^. - 



BY T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



For an opportunity to study the scales of the African Cyprin- 

 ida' I am indebted to Dr. G. A. Boulenger, and the account 

 given helow is based wholly on the collections in the British 

 Museum. In Dr. Boulenger's Catalogue of the Freshwater 

 Fishes of Africa, \\)\. I (1909), there are recognized ten genera 

 of Cy])rinid;e proper, namely, Labeo, Discognathm, Varicorhinus, 

 Jinrhiix, Rdshofd, Lcaciscus, Lepton/pris, Barilius, Neohula and 

 Clirdtthio'ii^i. OF these, all but Rasbora, Leuciscus and Lrptac)/- 

 pris arc found in the Nile l)asin. Leuciscus, or rather Phoxinellus, 

 is a PaUearctic type found in northern Africa; Lcptocypris 

 Boulenger, 1900, is a relative of Barilius, found in the Congo 

 basin ; Rushora Bleeker is an Asiatic genus, of whicli one of the 

 Asiatic species (i?. ihinlronlus Ham. Buch.) occurs at Zanzibar. 

 Chcluthlojis Boulenger, 1899, is an African genus related to the 

 Asiatic Chela ; it occurs in the Congo basin (C. clongatus) and 

 in the Nile (C. lilhle). Neuhola Vinciguerra, 1894, is said to be 

 allied to the Asiatic Bola (which Day includes in Barilius); it 

 was based on a species (iV. liuitcgol) from Somaliland, and has 

 another (A^. argcntea) confined to Lake Victoria. It thus appears 

 that the Ethiopian Cyprinid fauna, though numerous in species, 

 shows very little generic differentiation, and is in all respects 

 closely related to that of the Oriental region. 



The scale-characters of the African genera, as observed in 

 scales taken from the vicinity of the lateral line, at about the 

 level of the beginning of the dorsal fin, are as follows: 



(1.) Chchcthiops. C. hibie Joanni^. Kiver Nile. Scales broader than 

 long, the basal and lateral eirenli coarse, the apical ones much 

 y.")— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wa8h.. Vol. XXIII. I'JIO, (111) 



