IX. — The South American Cat-fishes Belonging to Cornell 



University.* 



BY EDWARD M. KINDLE. 

 Read October 22. ]S04. 



Some years ago the late Charles Frederick Hartt made a col- 

 lection of fishes in Brazil, which he gave to Cornell Universit3\ 

 Through the courtesj^ of Dr. B. G. Wilder this collection was 

 transmitted to Dr. Eigenmann for identification. The cat-fishes 

 in it were turned over to me for determination. In the identifi- 

 cation of these I have used the " Revision of the South American 

 Xematognathi," by C. H. and R. S. Eigenmann. I am indebted 

 to Dr. Eigenmann for the use of his library and for assistance in 

 the identification of doubtful species. 



The collection contains nineteen genera and twenty-seven 

 species, distributed among three families : Silurida^, Loricariidae, 

 Callichthiida?, and their sub-families. It has yielded two new 

 species. One of these belongs to the genus Hassar. The name 

 wildei'i is proposed for it in honor of Prof. Wilder. It is repre- 

 sented b3' four specimens from the Tocantins River. The other 

 neAv species belongs to the genus Hemianc>strus. It has been 

 named longipinnis, in refei'ence to the long dorsal. 



The collection is mainly from the Amazon and its tributaries. 

 The fish fauna of the Amazon is very similar to that of the Ori- 

 noco on the north and the LaPlata on the south. This is 

 explained by the fact that these three river S3^stems are con- 

 nected through their tributaries. The only genus which was 

 considered peculiar to the LaPlata fauna is Cochliodon. I find 

 this genus represented in the collection by four specimens from 



* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory of the ludiaua Univer- 

 sity. No. IV. 



Annals N. Y. Acad. Sci., VIII, Jan., 1895.— 18 



