120 BULLETIN 189, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM 



bb. Dorsal shield small, with convex anterior margin, crescent-shaped; palatine 

 teeth in small or moderate patches, not extending on pterygoids. 

 c. Teeth all pointed, present on jaws, vomer, and palatines. 



Galeichthys (p. 123) 

 cc. Teeth in jaws pointed, none on vomer, those on palatines blunt. 



Arius (p. 127) 



Genus BAGRE Cuvier, 1817 



Gafftopsail Catfishes 



This genus is characterized by its four barbels, the maxillary ones 

 being broad and bandlike. The pectoral spines and usually the dorsal 

 spine with a long, flattened filament. 



Two species, one of them new to the fauna of Peru, come within the 

 scope of the present work. 



KEY TO THE SPECIES 



a. Dorsal spine without a filament; 13 or 14 gill rakers on lower limb of first arch; 



anal fin not marked with a conspicuous dark area., panamensis (p. 120) 



aa. Dorsal spine provided with a long flat filament; 3 gill rakers on lower limb of 



first arch; anal marked with a conspicuous dark area on its anterior lobe. 



pinnimaculatus (p. 121) 



BAGRE PANAMENSIS (GilJ) 



Bagre 



Aelurichthys panamensis Gill, 1863c, p. 172, west coast of Central America 



(original description) . 

 Felichthys panamensis Starks, 1906, p. 764, Guayaquil, Ecuador (notes). — Meek 



and HiLDEBRAND, 1923, p. 97, Panama Bay (synonymy; description; range), 

 Aelurichthys scutatus Regan, 1907, p. 116, pi. 15, fig. 2, and pi. 19, fig. 2, Pacific 



coast of Panama, northwestern Ecuador (original description). 



Head 3.4 to 3.6; depth 4.25 to 5.0; D. I, 7; A 26 to 28; P. I, 11. 



Body not especially robust, its depth exceeding its width at origin 

 of dorsal by about diameter of eye, tapering strongly posteriorly; 

 caudal peduncle slender, compressed, its depth 3.0 to 3.5 in head; 

 head rather broad, its greatest width equal to its length less half 

 the snout; interorbital space moderately flat, 1.7 to 1.8 in head; 

 snout broad, rather strongly depressed, broadly rounded, 2.5 to 2.6 

 in head; eye lateral, 5.0 to 5.4 in head; mouth arched forward rather 

 strongly, its width at angles 1.8 to 1.95; teeth pointed, those on 

 upper jaw in a narrow band, ending posteriorly in a point, slightly 

 restricted but continuous across median line, the band on lower jaw 

 rather narrower, interrupted at median line; vomerine patches of 

 teeth larger than the palatine patches; gill rakers about half as long 

 as eye, 5 or 6 on upper and 13 or 14 on lower limb of first arch; upper 

 surface of head smooth; fontanel groove extending forward to some 

 point between eyes, and back nearly or quite to occipital plate; this 

 plate with a rather sharp median keel, its lateral margins rounded, 



