532 BULLETIN 10 0, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



10789 to 10791, 13883. Matnog Bay, East Luzon. May 31, 1909. Length, 



173-213 mm. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 18004. Honolulu. Dr. T. H. Streets. Length, 500 mm. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 52667. Hawaiian Islands. Albatross collection (03588). Length, 



300 mm. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 55133. Hanalei River, Hawaiian Islands. Albatross collection. 



Length, 198-205 mm. 2 examples. 

 U.S.N.M. No. 65722. Funafuti. Bureau of Fisheries (08336). Length, 75 mm. 

 A.N.S.F. No. 2.5997. Durban, Natal. 1927. H. W. Bell Marley. Length, 238 mm. 



Family OSTEOGLOSSIDAE 



Body elongate, sides flattened and ventrally compressed. Mouth 

 edge formed by premaxillaries and longer maxillaries. Teeth va- 

 rious. Subopercle much reduced, more or less concealed beneath 

 preopercle. Gill openings wide. No pseudobranchiae. Branchio- 

 stegals 7 to 16. Stomach without blind sac. Pyloric coeca 2. No 

 oviducts. Scales large to very large, cycloid, formed as mosaiclike. 

 Head scaleless. Lateral line complete, with single tubes. Dorsal 

 opposite anal, both approximated to rounded caudal. Pectorals low, 

 folding against body. Ventral rays 5 or 6. 



Fresh waters of South America, Africa, Indo-Australian Archi- 

 pelago, and Australia. As here understood the family resolves into 

 three subfamilies; the Osteoglossinae including the American Osteo- 

 glossuin besides Scleropages; the American Arapaminae with Ara- 

 pamia; the African Clupisudinae with Clupisudis, usually known by 

 later Heterotis. The fossils Phareodus from the Wyoming Eocene 

 and Anogmms from the Cretaceous of Kansas are evidently related 

 forms. As Giinther has shown, the distribution of the members of 

 the family closely parallels that of the Dipnoi. 



Geniist SCLEROPAGES Gunther 



Scleropages GiJNTHEB, Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., ser. 3, vol. 14, p. 196, 1864. (Type, 



Scleropages leichardti Gunther, monotypic.) 

 Delsmania FowLEai, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia, vol. 85, p. 243, 1934. 

 (Type, Ostcoglossum formosum Schlegel and Miiller, orthotypic.) 



Body compressed ventrally to trenchant edge. Mouth cleft very 

 wide, greatly inclined. Lower jaw prominent, with pair of barbels 

 at tip. Maxillary very long, narrow. Jaws with series of small 

 teeth and viljiform teeth on vomer, palatines, pterygoids and tongue. 

 Gill membranes united at bases, free from isthmus. Gill rakers stout, 

 few, with series of protuberances on inner side of first branchial arch. 

 Branchiostegals 15 or 16. Scales large. Dorsal much shorter than 

 anal. Dorsal and anal separated from caudal. Pectorals elongate. 



Several species in the Indo -Malayan region. 



