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DESCRIPTION OF A NEW AUSTRALIAN EEL. 



By J. Douglas Ogilby. 



{Communicated by Edyar R. Waits, F.L.S.) 



Gymnothorax prionodox, sp.nov. 



Length of head 3J, height of body (above the vent) 9 in the 

 trunk; length of trunk 1^ in that of the tail. Eye of moderate 

 size, its diameter three-fourths of the length of the snout, to the 

 tip of which it is much nearer than to the angle of the mouth : 

 snout short, compressed, and transversely truncated, its length 

 one-seventh of that of the head : anterior nasal tube short, about 

 three-sevenths of the diameter of the eye; posterior nostril an 

 oblong slit, situated above the orbit, and surrounded by a low- 

 rim, its length one-third of the gill-opening. A series of three 

 large pores along each ramus. Cleft of mouth of moderate size, 

 21^ in the length of the head; the mouth can be completely closed. 

 Occipital region elevated, fleshy. Gill-openings narrow, four- 

 fifths of the diameter of the eye. Teeth in the jaws uniserial, 

 acute; the anterior teeth in the upper jaw the longest, serrated 

 on the basal half posteriorly: vomer edentulous: mandibular 

 teeth entire, about fourteen on each ramus, the three front ones 

 enlarged and subulate, the lateral ones subequal. 



General colour {in alcohol) rich yellowish-brown, the fins darker; 

 undersurface and sides of the head and the throat livid gray, the 

 latter with numerous narrow, brown, longitudinal streaks; entire 

 body and dorsal fin with round or oblong whitish or pale blue 

 spots, not exceeding the orbit in size; they are small and faint on 

 the opercular region, beyond which they do not extend; on the 

 dorsal they are concurrent across the margin. 



The species above described belongs to the old collection of 

 Australian Fishes, and was labelled '^ Anguilla, sp., Port Jackson." 

 It is closely allied to the Atlantic G. ocellatus, Agass., (Rio 

 Janeiro to Florida and Texas) from which it difiers in its much 

 smaller head — prionodon y\, ocellatus h of the trunk — in the 



