9. BENTHOPHILUS. 91 



lines. 



Total length 33 



Height of the body 6 



Length of the head 8 



Greatest width of the head 7 



Diameter of tne eye 1 



9. BENTHOPHILUS. 



Benthophilus, Eichw. Zool. Spec. iii. p. 77. 



Body moderately elongate, tubercular ; scales none; head broad, 

 depressed. Gill-openings closed, except a small aperture superiorly. 

 Teeth smaU. Two dorsal fins, the anterior with three spines. 

 Ventral fins united. Branchiostegals four. 



Caspian Sea. 



1. Benthophilus macrocephalns. 



fiobius macrocephalus, Pallus, Nov. Act. Petrop. i. p. 52. pi. 7. 



figs. 4-6, and Zoogr. iii. p. 163; Cuv. Sr Val. xii. p. 126. 

 Benthophilus macrocephalus, ^tcAtc. Zool. Spec. iii. p. 77, and BttU. Soc. 



Nat. Mosc. 1838, ii. p. 139 ; Nardni. in Detnid. Vmj. Puss. Mcrid. 



iii. p. 440, Poiss. pi. 14. fig. 2. 

 Hexacanthus macrocephalus, Nordm. mBtdl. Acad. St. Petersh. 1837. 



D. 3 1|. A. 9. 



Skin rough, tubercular. Head depressed, subcircular, as broad 

 as long, one-third of the total length. The cleft of the mouth wide, 

 not extending to the eye. Greyish, spotted with blackish. 



Caspian Sea. 



10. SICYDITTM. 



Sicydium, Cuv. Sr Val. xii-. p. 167. 



Sicydium et Sicyopterus, Gill in Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1860, 

 p. 101. 



Body subcylindrical, covered with ctenoid scales of rather small 

 size ; head oblong, with the cleft of the mouth nearly horizontal 

 and with the upper jaw prominent ; lips Very thick ; the lower lip 

 generally with a series of minute teeth. A series of numerous small 

 teeth in the upper jaw, implanted in the gum and moveable (fixed 

 in the last two species) ; the lower jaw with a series of conical 

 widely-set teeth. Eyes of moderate size. Two dorsal fins, the an- 

 terior with six (five) flexible spines ; caudal quite free ; ventral fins 

 united to a short semicircular disk, more or less adherent to the 

 belly. GiU-openings of moderate width ; branchiostegals four ; air- 

 bladder none. Pseudobranchiae, a sht behind the fourth gill, 



A tropical genus, inhabiting fresh waters near the sea. One 

 species from the West Indies, the others from the East Indian 

 Islands, — the extreme points of their range being He de France, 

 Japan, and Hilo Hawaii. 



