NO. 1499. THE HERRINGS OF JAPAN— JORDAN AND HERRE. 615 



I. MEGALOPS Lacepede. 

 Megalops LiACEPEVE, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, 1803, p. 289 {ci/prhioides) . 



Body compressed, covered with large scales; no pseudobranchioe; 

 anal fin larger than dorsal fin; last ra}'^ of dorsal produced in a long 

 filament; insertion of dorsal over base of ventral fins. Shore fishes 

 of the Indian region, similar to the American Tarpon, or Grande 

 Ecaille {Tar/ton athodicus)^ Init reaching a much smaller size. There 

 is perhaps but one species. 



[fxeyaXojip^ large-eyed.) 



I. MEGALOPS CYPRINOIDES (Broussonet). 



Clupea cyprinotdes Broussonet, Dec. Ichthyol., I, 1782, \)\. ix (Island of Tanna, 

 South Pacific; synononiy confused with Tarpon atlanticus). 



Megalops Jil'nnentosus Lacepede, Hist. Poiss., V, 1803, pp. 289, 290, pi. xiii, fig. 3 

 (Fort Dauphin, Madagascar). 



Clupea ihrissoides Bloch and Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 1801, p. 424: (based pri- 

 marily on cyprinoides of Broussonet). 



Cyprinudon cundinga Hamilton-Buchanan, Fish. Ganges, pp. 254, 383 (Ganges 

 River). 



Megalops setipinms Richardson, Ann. Nat. Hist., XI, p. 493. 



Megalops curtifilis Richardson, Ichth. China, 1846, p. 310 (Canton). 



Megalops indicus Cuvier and Valenciennes, Poiss., XIX, p. 388, pi. cxlii, 1846 

 (India). 



Megalops inacrophthalmus Bleeker, Verh. Bat. Gen., XXIV, Chiroc, 1851, j). 15 

 (Flast Indies). 



Megalops macropterus Bleeker, Ned. Tydskr. Dierk., Ill, 1866, p. 284 (East 

 Indies). 



Megalops kinidinga Bleeker, Ned. Tydskr. Dierk., Ill, 1866, p. 288 (East 

 Indies). 



Megalops oligolepis Bleeker, Ned. Tydskr. Dierk., Ill, 1866, p. 292 (East Indies). 



Elopsapalike Bay, Fish. Malabar, p. 228 (Malabar). 



Habitat. — East Indies and South Seas, north to China and Riu Kiu 

 Islands. 



Head 4| in length; depth 4i; D. 19; A. 25; P. 15; V. 10; scales in 

 lateral line, 37; eye 3^ head; snout 4f; mandible If; interorbital space 

 ecjuals snout; ventral If in head; caudal peduncle compressed, 2f in 

 head. 



Body oblong, compressed, deep; head rather small, conical; inter- 

 orbital space broad, grooved and ridged; snout quite short and broad; 

 eye large, with narrow adipose lid; mouth terminal, oblique, the lower 

 jaw projecting; a narrow bony plate between the mandibles, attached 

 to S3'mphysis. 



Teeth in villiform bands on both jaws, tongue, vomer, palatines. 

 Maxillary broad and long, forming lateral part of mouth and reach- 

 ing beyond posterior margin of eye; gill openings very large; gill 

 rakers of first branchial arch longer than gill filaments, slender, rigid; 

 those of other arches ver}' short. 



