FRESH-WATER FISHES OF SIAM, OR THAILAND 505 



HERREOLUS FORMOSUS (H. M. Smith) 



Herrea formosa Smith, 1931a, p. 40 (Koh Chula). 



This is a minute, apparently rare, species, first made known from a 

 specimen 2.3 cm. long taken in a tide pool on Koh Chula, off the Chant- 

 abun Estuary in Southeastern Thailand in 1930, and subsequently 

 found in a tide pool on Koh Samet, Southeastern region, where four 

 specimens 2.4 to 3 cm. long were caught in 1931. 



Notwithstanding its very small size, this goby is rendered conspicu- 

 ous by its coloration : Head and body pale olive-yellow; a broad black 

 lateral band from mouth, through lower half of eye to base of caudal fin 

 and thence in the lower part of that fin to its extremity ; a black median 

 dorsal band from tip of snout to base of caudal fin and thence spread- 

 ing out on the upper caudal rays ; all fins pale yellow. 



Owing to the apparent loss of the type (U.S.N.M. No. 90324), never 

 received in the U. S. National Museum, it is proposed to designate as 

 a neotype one of the later specimens (U.S.N.M. No. 119611) and to 

 make neoparatypes of the other three specimens now in hand 

 (U.S.N.M. No. 119612). 



It is a matter of considerable interest to note that Herre (1940) has 

 found this fish in the Philippines, and collected 11 specimens 12 to 31 

 mm. long in Negros and Basilan in 1936-37. At Port Holland, 

 Basilan, "a school of these fish lived in the growth on the piling of the 

 wharf, whence they would emerge and swim about freely on the sur- 

 face of the water, which is deep enough for ships to lie alongside the 

 dock. At the slightest alarm they would dart back into the protection 

 of the growth on the piling, so that it was very difficult to get at them." 

 Some of the Port Holland fish had an increased number of branched 

 rays in the dorsal (13 to 16) and anal (12 to 15) fins, but were otherwise 

 in full agreement with the original description calling for 12 such rays. 

 Herre's excellent halftone plate, the first representation of this species, 

 shows only five spines in the first dorsal fin, but the description of the 

 material indicates six spines. 



Genus ELEOTRIS Bloch 



Eleotris Bloch, in Schneider, Systema Ichthyologiae, p. 65, 1801. (Type, 

 ■--■■' Goiius pisonis Gmelin) . 



ELEOTRIS FUSCUS (Bloch) 



Poecilia fusca Bloch, in Schneider, 1801, p. 453 ("Oriadeae insulae rivulis"). 

 Eleotris fusca Fowlee, 1934a, p. 155 (Bangkok) ; 1935a, p. 160 (Bangkok) ; 1937, 

 p. 248 (Tachin). 



This species, of very wide distribution in both fresh and salt waters 

 of the Orient (east coast of Africa, India, Ceylon, Malaya, Dutch East 



