NO. 9 AMERICAN FISHES — HILDEBKANU 5 



head; eye large 2.9; intcrorbital narrow 10: mouth rather obH(|ue ; 

 mandible projecting strongly, almost entering dorsal profile, 1.75 in 

 head ; maxillary narrowly rounded posteriorly, reaching below anterior 

 margin of pupil, 1.85 in head; a soft ligament present between pre- 

 maxillary and maxillary ; teeth all small to minute, several in a single 

 series on anterior part of mandible, a scries on prcmaxillary and on 

 margin of maxillary, bands of granular teeth on palatines, pterygoids, 

 and tongue ; gill rakers at angle of fi^st arch scarcely half length of 

 eye, 19 on lower limb of first arch ; scales from middle of side below 

 base of dorsal fin scarcely deeper than long, not very closely imbri- 

 cated, with 4 or 5 vertical striae, only the posterior one complete, the 

 margins nearly smooth ; dorsal fin high anteriorly, the longest rays 

 reaching far beyond the tip of the last one if deflexed, only a little 

 shorter than head, origin of fin nearer margin of snout than base of 

 caudal by a distance equal to length of snout and eye ; caudal dam- 

 aged, forked, the lower lobe evidently the larger ; anal fin long, scarcely 

 elevated anteriorly, its margin nearly straight, origin of fin under 

 last ray of dorsal and equidistant from posterior margin of eye and 

 base of caudal, base of fin 2.4 in standard length ; ventral fins long 

 (for an Ilisha) , inserted rather less than an eye's diameter in advance 

 of vertical from origin of dorsal, and notably nearer origin of anal 

 than base of pectoral, 2.3 in head ; pectoral fin large, reaching well 

 beyond base of ventral. 4.3 in standard length, with a free axillary 

 process only about a third the length of fin. 



Color of the type, an old preserved specimen, grayish above, yellow- 

 ish to silvery on sides ; upper surface of snout and tip of mandible 

 dark brown ; a brownish area behind eye ; fins all with dusky punctu- 

 lations, few and scattered on ventral fins, most numerous on dorsal 

 and caudal and on upper rays of pectoral. 



This species is represented in the collection of the National Museum 

 by a single specimen, the holotype (No. 52550). the only one known. 

 It has a total length of about 200 mm. (length to base of caudal 160 

 mm.), and was taken in the Amazon River somewhere between Para 

 and Manaos, Brazil. 



This species differs from other local forms in having a ligament 

 between the maxillary and prcmaxillary, where the other tropical 

 Atlantic species of the genus have a bone bearing fine teeth along its 

 margin. The body in apapoe is elongate, as in altamazonica, another 

 local species, but it apparently has larger scales, which are mostly lost, 

 fewer dorsal and more numerous anal rays. Furthermore, apapae 

 has more gill rakers than altamaconica, but fewer than the other 

 American species of this genus. It is nearest furlhii from the Pacific 



