NO. 1338. 



JAPANESE CATFISHES- JORDAN AND FOWLER. \)[)^ 



jaw8 and on vomer; no teeth on palatines. Gill opening wide, not 

 confluent with the isthmus, and narrowly joined together. Dorsal 

 small, without spine, and anterior; adipose tin absent; anal more or 

 less united with the caudal, very long; pectorals with spine; ventrals 

 behind dorsal. Air bladder not inclosed in bone. Fresh-water Silu- 

 roids found in India, East Indies, China, and Japan. 



This genus is very close to Silurus and distinguished chiefly by the 

 num))er of barbels, which are fi in that genus. The preoccupied name 

 6'/rr/^/.s, based on the species of this genus found hi Greece (67«?//.s- 

 aristoteh'.^, is, as Garman has shown, a synonym of the later Para- 

 sllurux!. 



(TTapd, near; /S/lurus.) 



3. PARASILURUS ASOTUS (Linnaeus). 

 NAMAZU (MUD-FI8H). 



Silurus asotus LiNN,T.:rs, Syst. Nat., 10th ed., 1758, p. 501; Asia.— Bloch and 



Schneider, Syst. lehth., 1801, p. 378.— Basilewsky, Nouv. Mem. Soc. Nat. 



Mos., X, 1855, p. 240, pi. iir, fig. 4; Pechili, China.— Gunther, Cat. Fisli. 



Brit. Mus., V, 1864, p. 33; Japan, China.— Ishikawa, Prel. Cat., 1897, ii. 



23; Tokyo, Suwa, INIino, Hikone. 

 Silurus japoiucus 8cRhEGEL, Fauna Japonica, Pisf., 1846, p. 226, ]»1. civ, fig. 1; 



Higo, Satsuma, Nagasaki. — Bleeker, Verhandel. Batavia Genootsch. Kun.st. 



Wetensch., XXV, 1853, pp. 30 and 51. 

 Silurus asotus Steindachner and Doderlein, Denk. Akad. Wissensch., LIII, 



1887, p. 287; Tokyo.— Sauvage, Bull. Soc. Philomat. (Paris) 1883, p. 2; Lake 



Biwa. 

 Parasilurti.s asotus Jordan and Snyder, Check List, p. 45; Yokohama, Lake Biwa. 



Head 4f in length; depth 61; D. 6; A. 7S; P. 1, 13; V. 12; width of 

 head two-thirds its length; eye about 9 in head; 2i in snout; 5 in inter- 

 orbital space; pectoral If in head; venti'al 2i. 



Bod}^ elongate, the trunk deepest in front, compressed laterally, and 

 the tail long and tapering. Head moderate, broadh^ depressed; when 

 viewed from above the snout is l)roadly rounded and flattened; eyes 

 small, lateral, and anterior; mouth very broad and superior, the man- 

 dible projecting; teeth sharp, in broad villiform bands in the jaws and 

 on vomer and palatines; lips rather thin and smooth; nostrils rather 

 far apart, the anterior in a small tube; barbels 1, 2 very long max- 

 illaries and 2 short mentals; interorbital space verj^ broad, elevated, 

 and flattened in the middle. Gill-openings large, very narrowly 

 jointed, and separate from the ver}^ broad isthmus. Gill-rakers few 

 and rather short; no pseudobranchiaj. 



Body perfectly smooth and naked. 



Dorsal a little shorter than the ventral and inserted just before the 

 tip of the pectoral; anal very long, united with the caudal behind, of 

 uniform height, and its origin much before the middle of the length; 

 iDectoral spine stout, both edges with strong deuticulatious, and about 



