Jordan and Evermann. — Fishes of North America. 2055 



2i09. PODOTHECUS ACOIPITER, Jordan & Starka. 



Head 31 in length; depth U. 1). VIII, 9; A. 10; pectoral 15; lat- 

 eral plates 36; eye 4A in head; snout 2^ • second dorsal spine 1|; second 

 dorsal rayli^; third anal ray If; caudal If; upper ray of pectoral 1|; 

 ventrals 2\. Body elongate, not compressed; head triangular as viewed 

 from above; the mouth wide, entirely inferior, /^—o -s^iaped, the lower 

 jaw shutting behind the upper by a distance equal to ^ eye; maxillary 

 not reaching quite to anterior orbital rim; distance of anterior edge of 

 upper lip from tip of rostral spines a little more than \ eye; teeth in 

 upper jaw almost obsolete, villiform bauds of teeth in lower jaw, wide in 

 front, becomiug narrow at sides; vomer aud palatines toothless; a patch 

 of thick barbels below snout in front of mouth, the longest equal to ver- 

 tical diameter of eye, a similar jiatch at end of maxillary, about equal in 

 length to the shortest on snout; 2 short barbels on each side of lower lip 

 between symphysis and angle of mouth. A pair of short, sharp, rostral 

 spines, pointing directly forward ; at their base and much wider apart is 

 a pair of spines which point upward, backward, and slightly outward; 

 running backward from those are the ridges that bound the wide groove 

 in which the maxillai-y process fits; these approach each other behind 

 and end in sharp spines which point backward and upward, these spines 

 midway between middle of eye and the spines behind rostral spines; a 

 pair of large spines above posterior third of eye, and a pair of large ones 

 at occijiut, these continuous with the upper ridges; a curved bridge 

 running from superior orbital rim aud ending in a sniall spine just above 

 opercle; a small ridge on opercle ; preoperele with a large spine; a couple 

 of spines below eye at lower edge of suborbitals ; running from them to 

 tip of snout a ridge along lower edge of preorbitals, somewhat irregu- 

 lar but without spines; interorbital space wide and deeply concave, a 

 pair of ridges on each side, converging forward ; supraorbital rim promi- 

 nent; anterior nostril ending in a short, wide, conical papilla, with a 

 small opening at the apex; no noticeable depression at occiput. Dorsal 

 riilges converging from the occiput to behind the soft dorsal, unitiug 

 on the second plate behind the base of last dorsal ray, continued as a 

 single ridge on about 8 plates where it becomes obsolete; the upper 

 lateral ridge follows the course of the lateral line to about the middle of 

 spinous dorsal, where it slants sharply upward and is continued to tail 

 above lateral line; lateral line midway between upper and lower lateral 

 ridges posteriorly; a single spine above base of pectoral indicating an 

 obsolete ridge between the lateral ridges, lower lateral ridge becoming 

 obsolete under pectoral on 2 or 3 plates behind its base; abdominal ridges 

 widest apart behind base of ventrals, uniting directly behind anal base 

 and running simply backward, becoming obsolete on caudal peduncle; all 

 the ridges with sharp, recurved spines, with the exception of abdominal 

 ridges behind part of anal; where the dorsal aud anal ridges disa^jpear 

 the caudal peduncle assumes a quadrangular shape, the corners being 

 framed by the spines of the lateral ridges; no row of spines around base 

 of caudal or ijectoral. Fins all high, origin of dorsal between the fourth 

 and lifth dorsal plates, the fin to base of last spine covering 6 plates, the 



