no. 1764. 77//: VENOMOUS TOADFISHES HE 1 Y 1 \ /> WEED. 515 



Head U. Depth 5£. D. 11-31. A. 30. P. 17. V. I, 2. C. 14. 



Body comparatively elongate, compressed behind. Head low and 

 rather narrow, its length V, limes its width. 



Eves very small, about 1.1 in snout and 2| in interorbital space, 

 11 in head. Interorbital width 4\ in head. Opercular spine .'J J to 

 4 in head. Mouth oblique, the lower jaw much projecting. Maxil- 

 lary 2| in head, reaching behind eye. Mandible \l in head. Teeth 

 moderate, largest on palatines, present on premaxillaries, mandible, 

 vomer, and palatines. Teeth in a very narrow cardiform band, 

 scarcely more than one row, on mandible and premaxillary ; some- 

 times plainly two rows on mandible. A single row across the head of 

 the vomer and on the palatines. The teeth are all conic, slightly 

 flattened at tip. In large specimens the two enlarged teeth on the 

 head of the vomer are very much worn off and blunted by use. The 

 teeth are somewhat longer than in others of the genus but do not 

 form enlarged canines as in Porichthys. Pectoral tins obliquely 

 rounded, H in head, reaching to about fifth anal ray. Caudal 

 rounded. Last rays of dorsal and anal 

 fully joined to caudal as in Tlialasso phryne 

 amazonica. 



Color in alcohol, dark gray, darkest at 

 base of the dorsal fins, black on the spinous 

 dorsal. Other specimens are reddish brown 

 becoming black on the spinous dorsal and be- 

 low the base of the soft dorsal. This ground fig. 4.-pectoral fin of poeich- 



. . -ill THYSGEEENEI. 



color in either case is extensively broken up 



by line marblings and mottlings of white or pale gray and disap- 

 pears entirely above the middle of the side in the brown specimens. 

 In the gray specimens the body color is carried farther down on the 

 side and ends much less abruptly than in those with the brown color. 

 The to]) of the dorsal, the end of the caudal and a short band on the 

 ends of the last anal rays is black. Below or in front of this is a 

 band of white in the blown specimens or of pale gray in the gray 

 ones. This covers all but the extreme base of the dorsal rays and 

 about half the length of the upper caudal rays. On the lower caudal 

 rays and the anal the white or light gray is continuous with the color 

 of the body. Just below the base of the dorsal the color is interrupted 

 by the white lateral line. 



We have examined and measured nine specimens of this species 

 ranging from about 4.5 cm. to 15.0 cm. in total length. The list 

 is as follows: 



reticulata has only four or five fewer rays in dorsal and anal; Thalassophryne amazonica 

 has a short dorsal ami anal which are fully joined to the caudal, and a rather elongate 

 form, and the teeth arc the same in several other species of Thalassophryne, as in 

 T. dowi. These considerations so reduce the value of the characters assigned to the 

 genus DgectOT that we can not even accord it subgeneric rank. 



