898 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxvi. 



b)>. Dorsal short or wanting;; confined to the abdominal portion of the vertebral 

 colnmn. 

 d. Opercle well develojied and movable; adipose tin normally present; gill- 

 openings usually wide; caudal vertebne not compressed, the neural spines 

 simple, spine-like. 

 dd. Maxillary reduced to a rudiment, the intermaxillaries only forming mar- 

 gin of upper jaw Silurid-e, 2. 



Family I. PLOTOSID.E. 



Bod}' more or less elongate and naked. Front of head with at 

 least 8 barbels. Gill-openings wide and the gill-membranes not con- 

 fluent with the isthmus, or only narrowly united. Dorsals 2, the tirst 

 short and with a spine in front, the second long and joined to the 

 caudal; anal long and confluent with caudal. No adipose dorsal. 

 Opercle present. A dentritic post-anal organ. Air-bladder not 

 inclosed in bone. 



Sea catfishes, often reaching a large size, and confined to the warm 

 and tropical coasts of the Indian Ocean, the seas about the East Indies, 

 and Australia, one species extending its range eastward to Samoa. 



1. PLOTOSUS Lacepede. 



Plotoms Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1803, p. 130 {angmUaris) . 



Body elongate, thick in front, and the tail tapering. Head depressed 

 and CO vered with thin skin ; snout rounded in front; eyes small; mouth 

 transverse; jaws with 8 barbels; conical teeth in upper jaw, those on 

 the mandible mixed, and vomer with molar-like teeth; nostrils far 

 apart, the anterior tubular; 9 to 12 branchiostegals. Gill-openings 

 wide, the gill-membranes not joined to the isthmus. Dorsals 2, the 

 first short, few-rayed, and with a spine in front, and the second ver}- 

 long, many-rayed and like the anal, confluent with caudal; pectoral 

 spines developed; ventrals with as man}^ as 12 rays. Air vessel mod- 

 erate in size and not inclosed in bone. A dendritic post-anal organ. 

 East Indian Seas, from Africa and India to Japan. 



{TcXcorog^ floating.) 



I. PLOTOSUS ANGUILLARIS (Lacepede). 



GIGl (CATFISH), SHIM AGIN (STRIPED CATFISH), UMIGIGI (SEA CAT- 

 FISH.) 



Plotosus anguillaris Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1803, p. 130, pi. in, tig. 2; 

 "Les Grandes Indes." — RtjppELL, Fische, Neue Wirbelthiere, 1837, p. ?(); 

 Red Sea.— Caxtok, Catal. Malay. Fish., 1850, p. 264; Malayan Peninsula.— 

 Bleekek, Ichthy. Archipel. Ind. Prodrom. Siluroid, 1858, p. 314. — Guntiier, 

 Cat. Fish., V, 1864, p. 24; Pinang, Sumatra, Borneo, Amoy, Philippines, 

 Fiji, Marston Bay.— Steindaciiner and Doderlein, Fische Japans, IV, 1887, 

 p. 287; Tokyo, Enoshima, Inland Sea, and Kagoshima. — Ishikawa, Prel. 

 Cat, 1897, p. 24; Tokyo, Izu. 



