EIGENMANN: the PYGIDIID^, a family of south AMERICAN CATFISHES. 351 



aa. Caudal forked or deeply emarginate, accessory rays few, inconspicuous; origin of dorsal a little nearer 

 tip of snout than tip of upper caudal lobe, or the reverse; origin of ventrals equidistant from base of 

 caudal and the eye, or a little nearer the former; D. 10; A. 7; back and sides with conspicuous spots 

 unsymmetrically distributed, sometimes in part arranged as a median series; a spot at base of 

 caudal, tips of caudal lobes black 2. maculatus (Steindachner). 



1. Homodisetus anisitsi Eigenmann & Ward. (Plate LVI, figs. 3 and 5.)'^ 

 Hoinodicctus anisitsi Eigenmann & Ward, Ann. Carnegie Mus., IV, 1907, p. 117, 



pi. XXXIV, figs. 2 and 3 (Villa Rica) ; Eigenmann, Reports Princeton Univ. 



Exped. Patagonia, III, 1910, p. 401. 



Habitat. — Villa Rica, Paraguay. 



Known only from the type in the collection of Indiana University. 

 10155, I. U. M., 9 , 43 mm., the type. Small creek at Villa Rica, Paraguay. 



Anisits. 



Head 6.5; depth 5.75; D. 8; A. 8; eye equals snout, 3.5 in the head, about equal 

 to interorbital; head nearly as wide as long; opercle with about four spines, inter- 

 opercle with six; the barbel shorter than the eye, the inner barbels much smaller; 

 upper jaw and Hps each with about four distinct series of teeth; those on the Ups 

 freely movable; the teeth narrow, more or less spoon-oar-shaped, those of the inner 

 series slightly larger; lower lip without teeth, three series of teeth on the jaw. 



Axillary gland very large ; origin of dorsal equidistant from tip of caudal and 

 posterior margin of the eye; caudal slightly emarginate, the upper lobe longest; 

 origin of anal under end of dorsal; ventrals reaching vent, which is equidistant from 

 tip of mouth and tip of caudal, origin of ventrals equidistant from snout and caudal. 

 Accessory rays numerous. 



In alcohol uniformly pale. The fresh specimen preserved in formalin was straw- 

 colored, the back with numerous large, conspicuous, stellate, black chromatophores, 

 and many more smaller, much less consi^icuous, brown ones; sides with a few small, 

 stellate, black, chromatophores, gradually giving rise to a regular series along the 

 middle of the tail; a dusky streak along tlie sides between the myotomes of the body 

 and the thin covering of the abdominal cavity; a small, black spot at the base of 

 the middle caudal ray; middle caudal rays dark, becoming intensely black toward 

 tip; oblique bars extending from the end of the second ray below median dark one 

 downward and forward to the tip of the lower caudal fulcra and then as a black line 

 forward along the tips of the fulcra; another one like it in all resi)ects from the tip 

 of the second ray above the median dark one upward and forward to the tip of the 

 caudal fulcra and then forward along their tips as a black line; remaining fins more 

 or less dotted. 



'^ The caudal should be emarginate in the figure. 



