THE OATFISHES OF VETs'EZUEILA — SCHULTZ 301 



very short spines; separately the two interopercular bony elements 

 bearing spines are barely movable; bases of movable interopercu- 

 lar bones in front of opercle and eye; barbel at corner of mouth about 

 equal to diameter of pupil; on the males the pectoral rays are greatly 

 elongate, sometimes extending to tips of pelvic rays, while in females 

 and young they extend to opposite the middle third of the pelvic fins; 

 adipose fin well developed; anal fin small, the spiny element rarely 

 with prickles as foimd on the spine of the other fins. 



Color. — Grayish, with about five more or less indistinct dark 

 blotches, little larger than eye, along midsidcs posteriorly; a black 

 spot on membrane between base of dorsal spine and first soft ray of 

 dorsal; dorsal fin barred, the pale and dark colors on the rays and 

 not on the membranes; caudal fin similarly barred; four small darlv 

 blotches or saddles on back, first at front of dorsal, second at rear of 

 dorsal fin base; third in front of origin of adipose and last on upper 

 edge of caudal peduncle; pel vies and pectorals occasionally with 

 indications of two or three dark bars, these at best indistinct. 



Remarks. — This new subspecies difi^ers mostly in color pattern from 

 C. pediculatus pediculatus of the upper Rio Meta system, Villavicencio, 

 Colombia, and in small average differences m counts as recorded in 

 the table. 



Named cohrensis after the stream in which it was collected. 



Genus PTERYGOPLICHTHYS Gill 



Pterygoplichthys Gill, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York, vol. 6, p. 408, 1858. 

 (Type, Hypostomus duodecimalis Cuvier and Valenciennes.) 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF PTERYGOPLICHTHYS REPORTED FROM VENEZUELA 



la. InterorVjital space 2.4 to 2.6 in head; dorsal rays I, 12; or I, 13; plates along 

 sides 28 to 30 Pterygoplichthys punctatus Gtinther 



lb. Interorbital space 2 to 2.25 in head; ramus of lower jaw 3>^ to 4 in interorbital 

 space; dorsal rays I, 12 or 13; plates along sides 28 to 30. 



Pterygoplichthys multiradiatus (Hancock) 



PTERYGOPLICHTHYS PUNCTATUS Gunther 



Pterygoplichthys punctatus GtJNTHBR, Catalogue of the fishes in the British Museum, 

 vol. 5, p. 251, 1864 (S. Vincente, Brazil). — Eigenmann and Eigenmann, 

 Occ. Papers California Acad. Sci., vol. 1, p. 431, 1890 (Venezuela). 



Ancistrus punctatus GtJNTHER, Trans. Zool. Soc. London, vol. 17, pt. 3, p. 229, 

 1904 (Venezuela; Upper and Middle Amazon). 



Pterygoplichthys duodecimalis Pellegrin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. 5, p. 

 158, 1899 (Apure River, Venezuela). 



PTERYGOPLICHTHYS MULTIRADIATUS (Hancock) 

 CORRONCHO 



Hypostomus multiradiatus Haxcock, Zool. Journ., vol. 4, p. 246, 1828 (Demarara) 

 (ref . copied) . 

 5.33749—43 9 



