AET. 7 NEW SIAMESE FISHES — SMITH 31 



equal to its breadth, its length about 3.3 times in body length; 

 rostro-dorsal profile convex, the snout strongly decurved and ob- 

 tusely pointed viewed from above; cephalic shields only slightly 

 rugose, occipital process granular, strongly keeled, subtriangular, 

 its base somewhat less than length, the posterior end rounded; a 

 shallow lanceolate fontanel extending from above posterior nostrils 

 to base of occipital process; eye lateral, in anterior half of head, 

 more than 5 in head, more than 1.5 in snout, 2.5 in postorbital re- 

 gion, and 2.8 in interorbital ; mouth rather small, its width 2 times 

 diameter of eye; humeral process smooth, less than eye; maxillary 

 barbels slender, short, extending 1 eye-diameter beyond eye ; mandib- 

 ulary barbels reaching less than .5 distance to posterior margin of 

 branchial membrane; mental barbels shorter; teeth in upper jaw in 

 a medianly-constricted band about 3 times as long as broad, palatine 

 teeth large molar-like, in 2 large suboval patches; gill-rakers short, 

 club-like, 9 on lower arm of first arch, the longest one-third diame- 

 ter of eye. 



Fins : Dorsal rays i,7, height of fin greater than depth of body and 

 equal to distance from posterior nostril to branchial aperture, base 

 of fin much less than 0.5 its height, spine very slender, longer than 

 head without snout, serrated distally on both anterior and posterior 

 surfaces; base of adipose fin equal to base of soft dorsal and sepa- 

 rated from dorsal by 2.5 times its length; caudal deeply cleft, the 

 lobes acute, the upper lobe longer; anal rays iv,14, the longest equal 

 to height of body at anal origin and somewhat longer than base 

 of fin, the posterior edge emarginate ; ventrals less than .5 length of 

 head ; pectorals about equal to head without snout, the slender spine 

 less than dorsal spine and serrated on both edges. 



Color: Back and sides light slaty-blue, belly silvery; fins j-ellow- 

 green, dorsal with a blackish margin, anal duskj', adipose with a 

 black spot. 



Type. — A specimen 25 cm. long over all, 21 cm. to base of caudal, 

 taken with a castnet in the Tapi River near Bandon, Peninsular 

 Siam, September 30, 1923. The fish is a male, with the buccal and 

 pharyngeal cavities filled with eggs in an advanced stage of develop- 

 ment whose long diameter is 1,4 cm. and short diameter 1.2 cm. Cat. 

 No. 90310, U.S.N.M. 



Paratype. — Another specimen, 25.5 cm. long over all, 21.5 cm. to 

 base of caudal, taken at the same place and date, is a male with 

 five young, 4.0 cm. long, in the back of the pharynx. 



Remarks. — This is a very common fish in the Tapi River where it 

 is said to attain a length of 1.5 meters. Examples in the Bandon 

 market on September 29, 1923, were 60 cm. long. Eggs of this fish, 

 separately exposed for sale, had been removed from the mouth of 

 large males in an agglutinated mass looking like a bunch of grapes. 



