u 



(( 



EIGENMANN: the freshwater fishes of BRITISH GUIANA 263 



Silvery, without definite markings. 



CuRiMATUS^^ Oken. 

 Curimates" Cuvier, Mem. Mus. d'Hist. Nat., I, 1815, 109 (French name only, 



unaccompanied by diagnosis or name of type). 

 Les Curimates" Cuvier, Regne Animal, II, 1817, 165; ed. 2, II, 1829, 309. 

 Curimatus Oken, Isis, 1817, 1183. — Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poiss., XX, 1849, 



4, etc. 

 Curimata Cloquet, Diet. Hist. Nat., XII, 1818, 240. 

 Curimates Goldfuss, Hand. Zool., II, 1820, — . 

 Characinus Mindling, Lehrb. Nat. Fische, 1832, 119. 

 Cyphocharax Fowler, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1906, 297 (spilurus). 

 Steindachnerina Fowler, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1906, 288 (trachystethus) . 

 Peliapleura Fowler, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1906, 300 (cyprinoides) . 



Type, Salmo edentulus Bloch = Salmo cyprinoides Linnaeus. 



Belly rounded or flat, without spines; tongue short and thick, adnate; mouth 

 horizontal or slightly oblique; lateral line complete; caudal lobes naked; scales 



large or medium. 



Key to the Guiana Species of Curimatus. 



a. Scales small, 36 or fewer in the lateral line. (Cyphocharax.) 

 b. Roof of mouth with few dermal ridges. 



c. A conspicuous black spot at the end of the lateral line spilurus. 



cc. Caudal peduncle plain; lateral line 33-34; dorsal plain microcephalus. 



bb. Roof of mouth with numerous flaps, ridges, and papilla; caudal peduncle with a black median line, 

 fading out forward. 



d. Dorsal with a large black spot at the base of its middle rays morawhannae. 



del. Dorsal mthout black spot issororoensis. 



aa. Scales small, 50-62 in the lateral line; at least the scales of the breast with serrate margins. {Curimatus.) 



e. Roof of mouth with numerous folds of sldn; upper gill-arclies v\ith papillce and with valve-like folds 



at their anterior ends; lower gill-arches with backward and forward directed raker-like filaments 



on their anterior halves, forming a grill on the floor of the mouth, and with a few large papillaj 



on their posterior halves schomburgki. 



ee. Roof of mouth with two feeble folds; no gill-rakers; dorsal falcate ciliatus. 



121. Curimatus spilurus Gimther. (Plate XXXIV, fig. 1.) 



" Curucu." 

 Curimatus spilurus Gunther, Catalogue, V, 1864, 288 (Essequibo). — Steindach- 

 NER, " Ichthyologische Beitrage," v, 1876, 31 (Hyanuary; Iga; TefTe; Rio 

 Negro). — Cope, Proc. Am. Philos. Soc, XVII, 1878, 684 (Peruvian Amazon). 



2' Anodus cyprinoides MtJLLER and Troscuel, in Schomburgk, Reisen, III, IS-iS, 633 (Essequibo, 

 Demarara; Rupununi). 



