FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 



135 



marginal blackish band along each of the caudal lobes, which are 

 diffused blackish distally, and a round black spot about the size of 

 the eye above the lateral line between the dorsal and ventral fins. 

 Some young examples of H. macrolepidota exhibit a round black spot 

 on the side in addition to other juvenile markings, all of which dis- 

 appear before the adult shape is reached. The round spot in dispar 

 is characteristic of the mature fish. 



At Ubon and Sakon Nakon the vernacular name for this fish is 

 ])la soot, apparently a contraction and variant of pla ka^soop, the 

 general name for Hampala in most parts of Thailand. 



Mi^iruT- 



.-^'fe,. 



Figure IS. — Hami>ala dispar H. M. Smith. Dravvn by Luang Masya; courtesy of the 



Thailand Government. 



Genus CATLOCARPIO Boulenger 



Callocarpio Boulengeb, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 7. vol. 1, p. 450, 1S98. (Type, 

 Catlocurpio slamensis Boulenger.) 



CATLOCARPIO SIAMENSIS Boulenger 



Catlocarpio sia^nensis Boui^nger, 1898, p. 450 (Menam Cbao Phya). — Smtth, 



1931d, p. 181 (Siam, Cambodia). 

 Catla catla Hoha, 1923b, p. 158 (Nontaburi).— Vipulya, 1923, p. 226 (Bangkok, 



Menam Chao Phya). 

 Catlacurpio siamensis Fowlkr, 1937, p. 179, figs. 116, 117 (Bangkok). 



This is a fish of the large streams, but it enters ponds and canals 

 connected with those streams. It occurs throughout the length of 

 the Menam Chao Phya and is known from the Meklong at Eajaburi, 

 the Bangkam at Lopburi, and the Pasak at Dha Luang. It breeds in 

 Bung Borapet and other bungs into which the flood water from the 

 rivers flows. In the Menam Chao Phya when the high water comes 

 down from the north the fish go with it as far as Paknam and are 

 often caught there in nets. 



This is the largest cyprinoid fish in Thailand and one of the largest 

 in the world. One taken at Bangkok on November 3, 1923, was 2.5 



