IQ PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 124 



a suprabranchial air-breathing organ, a gas bladder that extends 

 posteriorly well behind the body cavity, and teeth usually present 

 on the parasphenoid. With regard to the last feature, Liem (1967, p. 

 108) describes the parasphenoid of Luciocephalus as toothless, but 

 according to Regan (1909b, p. 768) there are "two or three minute 

 teeth on the parasphenoid." It may be that in the Luciocephalidae 

 the presence of parasphenoid teeth is a variable feature, as indeed it 

 is among the ophiocephalids and anabantids (sensu lato). Additional 

 suggestions of a relationship among the three groups are their fresh- 

 water, Old World distribution, centering in southeast Asia, and their 

 nest-building and/or oral-incubating proclivities. It seems most un- 

 likely that all these features are the result of convergent evolution 

 from independent origins. 



As already noted, the pelvic girdle of some of the Anabantoidei is 

 remote from the cleithra (Ophicephalus =Channa, Anabas); in others, 

 it articulates directly with the cleithra in typical percoid fashion 

 (Betta, Colisa, Trichogaster) . Furthermore, in Ophicephalus the pelvic 

 fin consists of six segmented rays. If the outermost pelvic rays of 

 Ophicephalus represent the usual percoid pelvic spines transformed 

 back into soft rays, such a secondary regression is only represented 

 elsewhere, to my knowledge, among the Fleuronectiformes (Hubbs, 1945). 



Among the anabantoids are found two seemingly atavistic charac- 

 teristics. One, discussed at length by Liem (1967), is the presence of 

 a mental ossification that closely resembles the gular plate of elopoid 

 and earlier fishes. My own belief is that the mental ossification of 

 Luciocephalus is not a true gular plate. The other characteristic is the 

 parasphenoid teeth already mentioned. Aside from two other percoid 

 families (see below), teeth on the parasphenoid are not found in the 

 Teleostei above the elopoids. Why they should reappear in the anaban- 

 toids and two other percoid families I do not know, but again it seems 

 to me that a postulate of reappearance is preferable to one of 

 inheritance. 



In searching for possible anabantoid relatives, one is led naturally 

 to the two percoid families that also have parasphenoid teeth: the 

 Nandidae and Pristolepidae. The "bite" provided by the parasphenoid 

 dentition of Pristolepis is quite different from that of Nandus (which 

 resembles that of Ophicephalus), just as that of Ophicephalus differs 

 from the parasphenoid apparatus of the anabantids (sensu lato). 

 Aside from the parasphenoid dentition, Nandus and Pristolepis 

 appear to be rather normal percoids, lacking such specialized anaban- 

 toid features as the accessory air-breathing organ and the backwardly 

 extended gas bladder. They do bear certain features, however, suggest- 

 ing an anabantoid relationship. First, all of these fishes have an ex- 

 panded auditory bulla on the cranium. Second, Ophicephalus (fig. 2a), 



