U). IIAPLODACTYLUS. 435 



4. Haplodactylus arctidens. 



Richards. Proc. Zool. Soc. 1839, p. 96, and Trans. Zool. Soc. iii. p. 81. 



D. 16|^. A t. Caec. pylor. 4. Vert. 1(5/18 (?). 



Incisors lanceolate, without distinct lobes in old age. Six simple 

 pectoral rays. Unifonn bro\ynish. 



a. Twenty-three inches long: stuffed. Port Arthur. Presented 

 by Sir J. Richardson. — Type of the species. 



o. Haplodactylus lophodon. (Plate XXIII. fig. B.) 



B. 5. D. 17 I 20. A. 1. L. lut. 78- 



Each incisor with a terminal lobe and two lateral lobes (on each 

 side). Six simple pectoral rajs. Brown : opercuhim with a black 

 spot behind ; caudal and anal variegated with lighter. 



Coast of New South Wales. 



a. Adult. Sydney. Presented by the College of Surgeons. 

 h. Young. New South Wales. Presented by Dr. G. Bennett. 



Dcscnption of the specimen. — The greatest height of the body is 3^ 

 in the total -length, and is below the sixth dorsal spine ; the upper 

 profile of the head and the nape of the neck is rather concave. The 

 head is small, its length being one-fifth of the total; its upper 

 surface between the orbits is flat. The snout is obtuse and rounded, 

 not longer than the diameter of the eye, which is more than the 

 distance between the eyes, and one-fourth of the length of the head. 

 The cleft of the mouth is narrow, horizontal, situated at the lowei' 

 part of the snout, which considerably projects above it ; the mouth 

 is very little protractile, and the upper maxillary does not reach to 

 the anterior margin of the orbit. The nostrils are rather remote 

 from each other, and the anterior is furnished with a short membra- 

 naceous appendage. The limbs of the prseoperculum are flexible 

 and skinny, and meet at a roimded angle ; the operculum terminates 

 posteriorly in a point, separated from another shorter one by a deep 

 semicircular notch ; the sub- and interoperculum are narrow. The 

 opercles and checks are covered with minute scales, the other parts 

 of the head being naked. 



The dorsal fin begins in the vertical from the extremity of the 

 operculum ; the spinous portion has the upper margin convex, and is 

 continued by the soft one, although the latter is considerably elevated 

 above the posterior spines ; its upper margin is nearly straight, 

 obliquely descending. The first spine is one-half the length of the 

 second, the second one-half of the third ; the following increase in 

 length to the sixth, which is nearly one-half of the length of the head. 

 The posterior spines gradually become shorter to the sixteenth and 

 seventeenth, which are equal in length to each other and to the second 

 spine. The second and third rays arc the longest, rather longer than 

 the sixth spine, the following gradually becoming shorter. There is 

 a pad along all the base of the fin, covered witb small scales and 



2 V 2 



