196 BULLETIN 18 8, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



In India the fishes reach a length of 45 cm. or more. The Indian 

 specimens in hand are 20 to 22 cm. The largest Thai examples are up- 

 ward of 12 cm., at which size the fish is immature. 



This fish was for many years carried in the composite genus Barbus. 

 In 1938 the genus Chagunius was established by the writer for its ac- 

 commodation. Outstanding characters are the compressed head with 

 flat sides; well-developed rostral and maxillary barbels; division of 

 the overhanging snout into a central and two lateral lobes by a groove 

 extending upward and forward from the base of each rostral barbel ; 

 narrow suborbital bones; gill openings extending well forward, gill 

 membranes narrowly joined to the isthmus; gill rakers on lower arm 

 of first arch represented by 9 triangular plates; pharyngeal teeth in 3 

 rows ; snout and cheeks in male thickly beset with short, horny tuber- 

 cles, which are smaller and fewer in females; dorsal rays iii, 8 or iv. 8, 

 last simple ray osseous and coarsely serrated : anal fin with 5 branched 

 rays of which the last 2 rays in the adult male are greatly elongated ; 

 rows of papillae along the pectoral, ventral, anal, and caudal rays in 

 male. 



Both the generic and specific names are based on the native vernac- 

 ular chagn/ni, borne by this fish in the state of Bihar. 



Genus ACROSSOCHEILUS Oshima 



Acrossocheilus Oshima, Ann. Carnegie Mus.. vol. 12, p. 206, 1919. (Type, 

 0-ymnostomus fortnosanus Kegan.) 



The generic name Acrossocheilus, given by Oshima to a Formosan 

 species (formosanus) characterized by the separation of the lower lip 

 into two lateral parts, leaving the median portion of the lower jaw 

 exposed, is here used with some hesitation for the group of fishes of 

 Southeastern Asia formerly called Lissochilus. The genus Lissochilus, 

 as defined by Weber and de Beaufort (1916, vol. 3), had nine branched 

 rays in the dorsal fin preceded by an osseous nondenticulated simple 

 ray, together with large scales, upper and lower lips continuous, upper 

 lip separated from the snout by a deep groove, lower lip medianly con- 

 nected with the isthmus and markedly separated from the lower jaw, 

 which is covered with a horny sheath, well-developed rostral and 

 maxillary barbels, and preorbital and suborbital regions with hori- 

 zontal rows of pores often surmounted by tubercles. 



The genus Poropuntius was proposed by the writer (Smith, 1931a) 

 for fishes similar to Lissochilus but with 8 branched dorsal rays and 

 denticulated last simple dorsal ray. The limits of the genus Lissochi- 

 lus were subsequently extended by de Beaufort, Myers, and others so 

 as to include fishes with the characters of Poropuntius. 



The name Lissochilus is unavailable for use in ichthyology because 

 it was first employed by Zittel (Handbuch der Palaeontologie, 1882) 



