442 BULLETIN 18S, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



to determine with certainty whether the lack of the eye was due to 

 development defect or to an accident. 



The vernacular names of this fish are pla lin ma and pla lin kwai. 



CYNOGLOSSUS MICROLEPIS (Bleeker) 



Plagusia microlepis BuEMKER, 1851 (38), p. 413 (Bandjermassing, Borneo). 

 Cynoglossus {Arelia) solum Sauvage, 1883b, p. 151 (Menam Chao Phya). 



A strictly fresh-water river fish, heretofore known only from Bor- 

 neo and Sumatra, this species is recorded from Thailand on the basis 

 of specimens taken in the Lopburi River at Lopburi, October 22, 1926, 

 and at the head of the Menam Chao Phya at Paknampo, December 8, 

 1923. These specimens, 13.5 to 24.5 cm. long, conform with the de- 

 scriptions as given by Bleeker and Weber and de Beaufort, although 

 the resemblance to C. xiphoideus is close. The principal points of 

 difference seem to be that in C. mlcrolepis there is a single distinct 

 lateral line on the blind side, and the number of scales in the median 

 lateral line of the colored side averages more but the minimum number 

 is overlapped by the maximum number in C. xiphoideus. 



It seems likely that Cynoglossus (Arelia) solum,, described by 

 Sauvage in 1878 (a) from the Mekong and noticed by him in 1883 as 

 having been collected by Harmand in the Menam Chao Phya, is the 

 present species. It was characterized as having 3 lateral lines on the 

 colored side, 1 lateral line on the blind side, 160 scales in the lateral 

 line, 110 dorsal rays, and 88 anal rays, and one of the nostrils situated 

 between the eyes (genus Arelia of Kaup). 



Vernacular name, pla lin ina. 



Family SYNGNATHIDAE : Pipefishes 



This family, with very numerous representatives in tropical and tem- 

 perate watei*s throughout the world, has in the fresh waters of Thai- 

 land seven species that fall into four genera, characterized below. 

 Among the family characteristics are the encasement of the elongate 

 body in bony plates, which correspond with the vertebrae, the elonga- 

 tion of the head into a tubular snout with a small terminal mouth, and 

 the feeble development of fins. The fish live among aquatic plants, 

 swim in a vertical position by the undulatory movements of the dorsal 

 fin, and have extraordinary reproductive habits, the eggs being carried 

 in a groove or pouch on the ventral surface of the male. 



All the pipefishes bear in Thailand the vernacular name of pla jim 

 fan jorake, meaning crocodile toothpick fish. 



la. Brood pouch abdominal ; superior cristae of trunk and tail discontinuous. 

 2a. Snout much longer than remainder of head ; anal opening behind midlength 



of fish Microphis 



26. Snout equal to, very slightly longer or shorter than, remainder of head ; 



anal opening before midlength of fish Doryichthys 



