124 BULLETIN 188, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



tion, having 38 scales in the lateral line and 5 scales above and 5 below 

 the lateral line to the base of the ventral, with dorsal rays ii, 7 and 

 anal rays ii, 9. 

 A length of 17 to 18 cm. is attained in India. 



ASPIDOPARIA SIAMENSIS (Sauvage) 



Morara siamensis BLEEKEai, 1865 (347), p. 35 (nomen nudum) (Siam) ; 1865 

 (356), p. 175 (nomen nudum) (Siam).— Sauvage, 18S1, pp. 164, 187 

 (Bangkok). 



In 1865 Bleeker (347) gave a list of fishes examined by him in the 

 Miisee du Jardin des Plantes a Paris, collected in the Menam Chao Phj^a 

 by Bocoiirt, and mentioned ''''Morara siannensis Blkr, nov. spec." but 

 without description, including it with a number of species "restent a 

 decrire." Later in the same year (356), Bleeker listed without de- 

 scription ''''Morara siamensis Blkr." 



It was not until 1881 that Sauvage gave a description of Morara 

 siamensis^ based on a specimen, 11 cm. long, from Bangkok in the 

 Paris Museum. Sauvage improperly credited the species to Bleeker. 



An examination of Sauvage's description at once suggests an 

 error in the allocation of this fish to the genus Morara or Aspidoparia, 

 as shown by the references to the position of the lateral line, to the 

 origin of the dorsal tin, and to the number of anal rays. 



In January 1939, at the request of the U. S. National Museum, Dr. 

 Jacques Pellegrin, of the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle in 

 Paris, courteously examined the specimens in that museum on which 

 Morara siamensis had been based and communicated the results of his 

 examination. The specimens, 4 in number, collected at Bangkok in 

 1862 by F. Bocourt, are 118, 90, 90, and 85 mm. long. The scales in the 

 lateral line are 33 to 35, in the transverse series 5.5-1-5.5, with 4 scales 

 between the lateral line and the base of the ventral fin, the predorsal 

 scales number 11 and the circumpenduncular scales 16; the lateral 

 line runs in the middle of the caudal peduncle; dorsal rays iii,8, 

 anal rays iii,5, ventral fins arising under the second or third branched 

 ray of the dorsal. Dr. Pellegrin wrote that this species is "far removed 

 from Morara morar and without doubt of a different genus," a con- 

 clusion fully justified by the origin of the dorsal fin in advance of the 

 A^entrals, by the number of branched anal rays, and by the position of 

 the lateral line on the caudal peduncle, all of which features conflict 

 with the generic definition. 



The present reviewer is unable with any degree of certainty to de- 

 termine the generic position of this fish or to state whether it is 

 specifically valid. 



Genus ALBULICHTHYS Bleeker 



Albulichthys Bleekee (261), Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl.-Indie, vol. 20, p. 430, 1860. 

 (Type, Systomus albuloides Bleeker.) 



