THE CATFESHES OF VENEZUELA — SICHXTLTZ 311 



Color. — Uniformly grayish; peritoneum dusky. My 31 -mm. speci- 

 men has the basal two-thirds of the paired fins black, and the tips 

 of these fins white; the posterior margin of dorsal is white, a narrow- 

 white bar across caudal peduncle, middle of caudal fin white then 

 some black blotches; the tips of the rays are white. 



Remarks. — This new species is closely related to Panaque gibbosus 

 (Steindachner) but difiers in having a more robust body. The 

 greatest depth at origin of dorsal fin is contained 3% to 4 in the stand- 

 ard length, and the least depth of the caudal peduncle is 2^ to 2% in 

 its length in P. suttoni, but in P. gibbosus it is 4)^ and 3 to 3}^, respec- 

 tively. Other differences are given in the key. 



Named suttoni in honor of Dr. and Mrs. Frederick A. Sutton, who 

 were very kind to me while I stayed at the camp of the Lago Petroleum 

 Corporation in Maracaibo. 



Genus COCHLIODON Meckel 



Cochliodon Heckel, in Giinther, Catalogue of fishes in the British Museum, vol. 5, 

 pp. 231, 238, 1SG4. (Type, Hypostomus cochliodon Kner.) 



Cheiridodus Eigenmann, Mem. Carnegie Mus., vol. 9, No. 1, p. 70, 1922. (Type, 

 Plecostomus hondae Regan.) 



Eigenmann in describing the genus Cheiridodus separated it from 

 Cochliodon by the presence of a "small lobe on the outer edge of 

 the base of each tooth." I am able to find such a lobe on small 

 specimens up to a standard length of about 60 mm. from the Mara- 

 caibo Basin, but the little lobe disappears with age and the tooth 

 wears down until it becomes cup-shaped. It is possible that Cheiri- 

 dodus hondae (Regan) is very close to Cochliodon plecostomoides 

 Eigenmann, neither of which I have seen. The relationship of these 

 two genera needs investigation. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES OF COCm:.IODON REPORTED FROM VENEZUELA 



la. Usually 7 or 8 strongly cup-shaped teeth on ramus of each jaw. 



Cochliodon cochliodon (Kner) 

 16. From 11 to 16 spoon-shaped teeth on ramus of each jaw. 



2a. Teeth 11 or 12 on each ramus; depth 4.5, head 3.1, in standard length; 

 eye 8.5 in head; least depth of caudal peduncle 3 in its length. 



Cochliodon plecostomoides Eigenmann 

 26. Teeth 13 to 16 on each ramus of jaws. -Cochliodon pospisili, new species 



COCKLIODON COCHUODON (Kner) 



Panaque 



Hypostomus cochliodon Kner, Denkschr. Akad. Wiss. Wien, vol. 7, p. 265, pi. 2, 



fig. 1, 1854 (Rio Cujaba). 

 Plecostomus cochliodon Pellegrin, Bull. Mus. Hist. Nat. Paris, vol. 5, p. 158, 1899 



(Rio Apure, Venezuela). 



