FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 125 



ALBULICHTHYS ALBULOIDES (Bleeker) 



Systomus alhuloides Bleeker, 1855 (139), p. 425 (Kapuas River, Pontianak, 

 Bandjermassing, Borneo). 



AlbuUchthys alhuloides Smith, 1931d, p. 186 (Menam Chao Phya, Menam Nakon 

 Nayok) ; 1931f, p. 138 (Siam) ; 1931f, p. 138.— Fowler, 1935a, p. 112 (Bang- 

 kok) ; 1937, p. 174 (Bangkok). 



Previously recorded only from Borneo and Sumatra, this species 

 was added to the known fauna of Thailand in August 1923, when five 

 small specimens were collected by the writer in the Menam Chao Phya 

 at Paknam. Since then the fish has been met with in various parts of 

 that river below Ayuthia and also in the Nakon Nayok. 



In the East Indies the fish attains a length of 36 cm. In Thailand 

 the largest example preserved was 28 cm. long. A specimen, 22.5 cm. 

 long, taken in the Nakon Nayok on June 6, 1928, was a female with 

 large ovaries. 



An example, 28 cm. long, from the Menam Chao Phya at Koh 

 Yai, March 23, 1928, was lustrous silvery, with the dorsal fin pale 

 yellowish except for a black line from the middle of the first simple 

 ray to the tip of the serrated spine and a dusky posterior edge, and 

 the caudal fin orange, with a broad black posterior margin. 



Elsewhere (Smith, 1931d, 1931e) the writer has drawn attention 

 to the fact that all local specimens of Alhulichthys alhuloides have 

 small but distinct rostral and maxillary barbels, although Bleeker, 

 who described the genus, and Weber and de Beaufort, who have 

 brought Bleeker's work up to date, state that there are no barbels. 

 Whether barbels are actually lacking in fish from Borneo and Sumatra 

 or have been overlooked remains to be determined. In any event, a 

 modification of the definition of the genus AlbuUchthys is necessary. 



The only vernacular name recorded for this fish is pla takoJc, shared 

 with various species of Gyclocheilichthys from which it is apparently 

 not always distinguished by fishermen. 



Genus SIKUKIA H. M. Smith 



Sikuldu H. M. Smith, Copeia, 1931, No. 3, p. 138. (Type, Sikukia stejnegeri 

 H. M. Smith.) 



The genus Sikukia^ established for S. stejnegeri^ resembles the 

 genera Amblyrhynchichthys^ Xenocheilichthys^ and AlbuUchthys. 

 Resemblance- to Aniblyrhynchichthys, its closest relative, is in the 

 short, blunt snout; large eye with adipose eyelid; absence of barbels; 

 and denticulated simple dorsal ray. Differences are in the mouth 

 (small and terminal in S/'kukia, larger and inferior in AmMyrhynch- 

 ichthys), rostral fold (triangular, partly covering the upper lip, and 

 in reality so distinctly separated from the rest of the snout as to 

 constitute a median lobe in AmMyrhynchichthys^ entire and covering 

 the upper lip in Sikukia), and nostrils (at front of snout and partly 



