88 NEW GENERA AND SPECIES OF AUSTRALIAN FISHES, 



series enlarged and conical; pterygoid bones and tongue smooth. 

 No perceptible spinous tubercle in advance of the dorsal fin ; 

 dorsal and anal fins low, separated from the caudal by a distinct 

 interspace : ventral fins long, inserted close together and well 

 behind the isthmus, reduced to a slender, simple filament, com- 

 posed of a single articulated ray : pectorals well developed, 

 pointed, composed of twenty slender, mostly divided rays : tail 

 homocercal, the caudal fin narrow. Genital papilla present. 

 Scales small, cycloid, and imbricate; head naked; only the basal 

 portion of the vertical fins enveloped in loose, naked skin. No 

 conspicuous open pores on the head ; bones of the snout and 

 interorbital region cavernous. No apparent lateral line. 



Etymology. — fiovos, single; 6pl^, a hair; in allusion to the 

 single, tiliform, ventral ray. 



Distribution. — Coast of New South Wales; 1 Andaman 

 Archipelago. 



MONOTHRIX POLYLEPIS, sp.nov. 



D. 95. A. 53 + x. Sc. 135. 



Body moderately elongate, strongly compressed posteriorl5^ 

 Head moderate, its length 4^, the depth of the body (3 in the 

 total length; depth of the head If, width of the head 1|^, of the 

 interorbital region 5^, diameter of the eye 7f in the length of the 

 head; snout blunt, with rounded profile, covered with thick loose 

 skin, two-thirds of a diameter longer than the eye; interorbital 

 region slightl}- convex and rugose. Mouth rather large, its cleft 

 oblique, extending nearly to the vertical from the middle of the 

 eye; the premaxillaries are but little protractile ; they form the 

 entire dentigerous portion of the upper jaw, have the lateral 

 portion well developed and of about equal width throughout, and 

 do not extend .backwards as far as the anterior border of the 

 maxillary, which is narrow in front, the posterior third being 

 abruptl}^ expanded; the front margin of the expanded portion is 

 curved downwards and forwards so as to form a strong odontoid 

 process; behind this process the lower half of the hinder margin 

 is scalloped, the upper half subtruncate with the angle rounded; 



