120 MEMOIRS OF THE CARNEGIE MUSEUM 



aaa. Derm more or less completely covered with several series of bony plates; caudal vertebrae compressed, 

 the neural and haimal sj)ines expanded, forming a continuous ridge above and below. Air- 

 bladder minute, one on either side of the coalesced vertebrae, and surrounded by a bony capsule, 

 in contact with the skin at a notch in the posterior margin of the temporal plate at the beginning 

 of the lateral line. Mouth inferior, the lower lip reverted, the lips disk-like; teeth (if present) in 

 many series, a single series erect Loricariidae, VIII. 



Family II. ASPREDINID^. 



The "Banjamans" (banjoman). 



= Aspredinoidei Bleeker, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk., I, 1863, 117. 



= Aspredinina Gunther, Catalogue, V, 1864, 266. 



= Aspredinidce Gill, Arrangement of the Families of Fishes, 1872, 19. 



= Biinocephalidm Eigenmann and Eigenmann, Am. Nat., 1888, 647; Occasional 



Papers Cal. Acad. Sci., I, 1890, 12. 



Characters given in the key to the families, p. 119. 



Key to the Genera of Aspredinid^. 

 a. Tail long, with a median dorsal fold; distance of vent from tip of snout less than half its distance 

 from base of caudal. A. 50-60. (Aspredinince.) 

 b. A series of barbels from the corner of the mouth along the breast and anterior part of abdomen; 

 maxillary barbel with a smaller barbel at its base. 



c. Tip of snouth smooth, ethmoid without hooks; a single pair of mental barbels (rarely wanting). 



Chamaigenes. 

 cc. Tip of snout (nasals and ethmoid) with four broad spines; a pair of mental and a pair of post- 

 mental barbels Aspredinichthys. 



66. Breast and head not margined with tentacles. Maxillary barbel adnate. 



d. Maxillary barbel with a smaller barblet near its base Aspredo. 



dd. Maxillary without a barblet at its base Platystacus. 



aa. Tail short, vent nearly equidistant from tip of snout and base of caudal. Anal with 11 rays or fewer. 

 ( Bunocephalinas.) 

 e. Dorsal well-developed, of five rays, the last of which is adnate. Barbels six. 



/. Head depressed, its greatest depth about half its width; coracoid and coracoid processes not 

 prominent; no prominent tentacles about head; humeral process extending past cora- 

 coid process Bunocephalus. 



//. Head about as deep as wide; coracoid and coracoid processes prominent; head externally 

 tuberculate; coracoid process extending past humeral process Agmus. 



Subfamily Aspredinina. 

 Chamaigenes^ gen. nov. 

 Chamaigenes Eigenmann, Repts. Princeton Univ. Exp. Patagonia, III, 1910, 

 380 (name only). 



» xa/naiTfi-iJs, earth-born. 



