JA PANESE CA TFISHES-JORDAN AND FO WLER. 899 



Plotosus lineatus Cuvier and Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XV, 1840 p.412- 

 Red Sea, Seychelles, Malabar, He de France, Trinqnc-nialo, PondiVlierry' 

 Amboina, Celebes, Friendly Islands, Tahiti, Macao, Philippines.— Richard- 

 son, Ichth. China, 1846, p. 286; Canton.— Schlegel, Fanna Japonica Poiss., « 

 1846, p. 228, pi. CIV, fig. .3; Nagasaki.— Sleeker, Verhand. Batav. Genootsch 

 XXI, 1858, pp. 4, 17, 57. 



Plotosus arab & Bleeker, Atlas Ichth., II, 1862, p. 98, pi. xcv, fig. 2 (several fig- 

 ures), founded on "36 (Silurus) (d) Arab Boa vel Bnja" of Forskal 

 Descript. Animal., 1775, p. XVI.— Day, Fishes India, I, 1878-88, p. 483, pi. 

 cxii, fig. 4.— Day, Fauna Brit. Ind., I, 1889, p. (XI) 113.— Kner, Novara, 

 Fische, 1865-67, p. 300.— Day, Fishes, Malabar, 1865, p. 195.— Kluxzinger' 

 Verhand. Zool. Botan. Gesellsch., 1871, p. 588.— Jordan and Snyder, Proc. 

 U. S. Nat. Mus., XXIII, 1900, p. 340; Tokyo.-JoRDAN and Snyder, Annot 

 Zool. Japan, III, April 3, 1901, p. 44; Yokohama. 



Head 31 in length; depth 5|; D. I, 5-80; xV. ()8; P. I, 10; V. 12; 

 width of head about li in its length; eye 2i in interorbital space, 3 in 

 snout, 7i in head; pectoral 2 in head; ventral 2^. 



Body elongate, the trunk thickest in front, compressed laterally, and 

 the tail rather long and tapering. Head large, broad, depressed; when 

 seen from above, the snout is broadly rounded and flattened; eyes 

 small, anterior and superior; mouth very broad; upper jaw produced; 

 teeth in the jaws rather few, large, coarse, with blunt ends, and simi- 

 larly formed on the vomer and palatines; lips rather thick, fleshy and 

 with small laminated folds or papilloB; 8 barbels, more or less equal, 

 and distributed as 2 nasals, 2 maxillaries, and 4 mentals, the longest 

 not equal to half the head; interorbital space concave and broad. Gill- 

 openings large, and forming a fold over the broad isthmus. Gill-rakers 

 numerous and slender; no pseudobranchia?. 



Body perfectly smooth and naked. 



First dorsal high, its base less than the interorbital space, the spine 

 strong, a little more than half the height of the fin, and the anterior 

 edge serrate above; second dorsal long, of uniform height, and begin- 

 ning between the origin of the ventrals and that of the anal; anal sim- 

 ilar to second dorsal, and both joined to the caudal, which is rounded 

 behind; pectorals equal to first dorsal, the spine similar to that of the 

 first dorsal, more than half the length of the fin, and with its outer 

 edge serrate; w^hen depressed the pectorals do not reach quite to the 

 ventrals, though these reach past the anal. The lateral line is well 

 developed. A well-developed dendritic post-anal organ. 



« We are indebted to Mr. Edgar R. Waite, of the Australian Museum, for the dates 

 of publication of the different parts of the Fauna Japonica. These are as follows: 

 Decade I, pp. 1-20, 1842; Decades II, III, IV, pp. 21-72, 1843; Decades V, VI, pp. 

 73-112, 1844; Decades VII, VIII, IX, pp. 113-172, 1845; Decades X to XIV, pp. 173- 

 269, 1846; Decade XV, pp. 270-324, 1850. 



&The specific name arab adopted by Bleeker from Forshal was an abbreviated 

 form of the word Arabic or its Latin equivalent, and should in no wise be construed 

 as a scientific term. 



Proc. N. M. vol. xxvi— 02 60 



