FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 561 



PSEUDAPOCRYPTES LANCEOLATUS (Bloch) 



Eleotris lanceolata Bloch, in Schneider, 1801, p. 67, pi. 15 (Traiiquebar) 

 Apocnjptes lanceolatm Br.EEKEE, 1865 (347), p. 34 (Siam) ; 1865 (356), p 174 

 (Siam).— Johnstone, 1903, p. 295 (Patani River), 



This species ranges from India to Thailand, Malaya, and the Indo- 

 Austrahan Archipelago. It is uncommon, or at any rate rarely recog- 

 nized, locally. In addition to the records shown in the synonymy 

 several specimens in the British Museum from the Menam Chao Phya 

 were received from the Siamese Museum. 



A length of more than 20 cm. is attained. 



Two specimens taken in the Menam Chao Phya at Paknam, Febru- 

 ary 5, 1927, 21.5 and 24 cm. long, have the very long slender interlock- 

 ing teeth m both jaws sliglitly dilated at the tip, with a dull point. 



The following interesting account of this species, as observed by 

 Annandale and Kobinson in the Patani Eiver, is given by Johnstone 

 ( 1903) : 



This is the least terrestrial of the mud gobies which we saw in Malaya and 

 IS obviously less highly specialized for an amphibious life than any species of 

 Boleophthalmus or Periophthalmus ; but it frequently wriggles along the mud 

 some yards away from the water, and its powers of "walking," or rather hop- 

 ping, on land, though less well-developed than those of its allies, are by no means 

 absent. At the mouth of the Patani River, at dead low tide, numerous indi- 

 viduals line the water's edge, and by some muscular effort raise their heads and 

 bodies into the air almost vertically, remaining poised, as if standing upright 

 on their tails for an instant, and then falling prone on the liquid mud This 

 curious manoeuvre, probably executed in attempts to capture flies, causes a 

 peculiar sound, which can be heard all along the shore. 



This fish is called pla kua at Bangkok and Paknam. 



Genus PARAPOCRYPTES Bleaker 



Parapocryptes Bleekeb (453), Arch. N6erl. Sci. Nat., vol. 9, p. 327, 1874. (Type 

 Apocryptes niacrolepis Bleeker.) ' ' 



PARAPOCRYPTES SERPERASTER (Richardson) 



Apocrypt.es serperaster Richardson, 1846, p. 206 (Macao, China).— Hora 1923b 

 p. 179 (Nontaburi). 



This fish of the seas and estuaries of India and China was first made 

 known by Hora (1923b) as an inhabitant of Thailand from three 

 specimens from the Menam Chao Phya at Nontaburi. In 1923 and 

 1929 the writer preserved specimens from the same river at Pakret 

 and Paknam, and in 1928 and 1933 he took many specimens in the 

 Bangpakong River as far up as Petrieu. A specimen, 21.2 cm. long, 

 obtamed near Petrieu on June 27, 1933, was a ripe male, and had the 



