FRESH- WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 421 



the. 8 species of Aplocheilus of McClelland, chrysostigmus, panchax, and 

 melastigmus, as synonyms of Panchax iucJianani, without having seen these 

 species. In 1854, however, he described Aplocheilus javanicus (Nat. Tijdschr. 

 Ned. Indie, VII, p. 323) after fishes he had found at Perdana, Java, and for 

 the first time gave a diagnosis of the genus, "Aplocheilus McCl. Bkr.," and 

 made the following remarks, which I translate from the Dutch : 



"Mr. J. McClelland was the first to designate this genus in Indian Cyprinidae 

 (Transact. Asiat. Societ. Beng. XIX, p. 301 and 426). The characters are well 

 indicated, but Mr. McClelland made the mistake to include Panchax iuchanani 

 C. v. (Esox panchax H. B.) among the species of Aplocheilus. This is the reason 

 why Mr. Cantor in his Catalogue of Malayan Fishes (p. 252) considers the diag- 

 nosis of Mr. McClelland very incorrect and why he rejects the genus. On the 

 authority of Mr. Cantor I formerly did the same, but after the discovery of my 

 specimens at Perdana, which agree in habitus almost entirely with the species 

 Aplocheilus nicClellandi Blkr., figured (but neither named nor described) by Mr. 

 McClelland on fig. 4, plate 55 of his work cited above and made after a drawing in 

 the collection of Hamilton Buchanan and which, indeed, has the characters men- 

 tioned by Mr. McClelland, it appears to me that Aplocheilus must be kept as a 

 genus and that also a closer examination of the species, which Mr. McClelland has 

 described and figured as Aplocheilus chrysostigmus and Aplocheilus inelastigmus, 

 is very desirable, to be able to judge with certainty if these species have to be 

 accepted or rejected as synonyms of Panchax buchanani." 



It is therefore clear that Bleeker considered at that time Aplocheilus mcClellandi 

 as the type of the genus and was still very much in doubt about the species chry- 

 sostigmus and melastigmus. Now Aplocheilus mcClellandi Blkr. is a synonym 

 of A. melastigmus (Day, Fishes of India, p. 522) and therefore this last named 

 species has to be considered as the type of the genus. 



This would be a most desirable way to dispose of this question. Un- 

 fortunately, the action of Day in making Aplocheilits TncGleUandi a 

 synonym of Aplocheilits melastigmus was unwarranted, as was the 

 action of Bleeker in assigning McClelland's unnamed figure to the 

 genus Aplocheilus. That figure, based on a drawing in Hamilton's 

 collection, was of a fish which Hamilton called Gyprinus {Cabdio) 

 dancena. This species does not belong in the Cyprinodontidae but is 

 one of the Cyprinidae of the subfamily Abramidinae. This is listed 

 as a synonym of Perilcmipus laubuca by Day (1878). See further, 

 Hora (1929b). 



It has been impossible to find a basis for the statement by Regan 

 (1911, p. 324) that Bleeker "definitely restricted" Aplocheilus to the 

 melastigmMs group, a course which would have permitted the continu- 

 ance of recent usage as regards the names Panchax and Aplocheilus. 



From the foregoing it thus appears that the name Aplocheilus must 

 be associated with fishes that have in recent years borne the name 

 Panchax^ and that Panchax is a synonym of Aplocheilus. 



The genus Aplocheilus is represented in Thailand by a single species 

 of wide Oriental distribution. 



590087 — 45 28 



