228 BULLETIN 188, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



known as mai mm, bears pods called luk mm (or nun-tree fruit), the 

 shape of which has suggested pla soi luk mm as a name for this fish. 

 In the province of Nakon Sritamarat the fish is generally known as 

 pla lao tong (golden-spear fish). 



LABIOBARBUS KUHLII (Cuvier and Valenciennes) 



Dangila kuJiUi Cuviee and Valenciennes, 1842, vol. 16, p. 231 (Java). 



There is no published reference to the occurrence in Thailand of 

 this species of Java and Sumatra. It has been collected at Bangkok, 

 in the Menam Chao Phya above Bangkok, in the lower Menam Nan, 

 and in Bung Borapet. Because of its similarity to L. leptocheilMs it 

 is undoubtedly often misidentified, and L. kuhlii is probabl}' more 

 common than preserved material would indicate. 



This fish was first met with in Thailand in the upper Menam Chao 

 Phya at Bangtang on November 17, 1923, when a specimen 15 cm. long 

 was caught with a cast net. The next day, in the lower Menam Nan, 

 a specimen 18.8 cm. long was obtained with a yokyaw (large dip net). 

 In March 1931 specimens were collected in Bung Borapet by Luang 

 Masya Chitrakarn, of the Siamese Bureau of Fisheries. 



On May 21, 1926, a fish about 20 cm. long with well-developed ova 

 was found dying in a klong in Tonburi, a part of Bangkok. In life 

 the lustrous sheen of the body and head was relieved by black longi- 

 tudinal stripes on the back and sides following the rows of scales ; the 

 dorsal and caudal fins were dusky green, with a row of black spots on 

 the middle of the dorsal membranes; the anal and ventral fins were 

 pale salmon-pink ; the pectorals were pale green. This specimen was 

 taken to the Zoological Museum in Amsterdam and compared with a 

 specimen of L. kuhlii from Gunung Sahilan, Sumatra, and found 

 to be in close agreement therewith; it was found to differ from speci- 

 mens of L. cu'vicH Boulenger (i. e., L. leptocheilus) from the River 

 Batang Hari, Sumatra, in the conspicuously larger head. 



In specimens 19 to 20 cm. long in the U. S. National Museum from 

 Bung Borapet, the head is about 4.3 in standard length; the eye is 

 3.5 in head, 1 in snout, and 1.8 or 1.9 in interorbital space ; the maxil- 

 lary barbel is about twice the diameter of the eye; the tubule-bearing 

 scales in the lateral line number 38 to 41, the scales in transverse series 

 to the base of the ventral fin are 7.5 or 8.5-1-5.5 or 6, the circumpe- 

 duncular scales number 22 ; there are dark longitudinal streaks follow- 

 ing the rows of scales, and there is a diffuse round black spot larger 

 than eye on the caudal peduncle. 



In squamation, barbels, fins, and coloration the fish bears a< close 

 resemblance to L. leptocheilus and may be found to intergrade there- 

 with, but was considered distinct by Bleeker, Giinther, and Weber and 

 de Beaufort chiefly on account of its larger head, which is contained. 



