33. LIOCASSIS. 



»v 



a. Snout much produced ; occipital process naked. 



1. Liocassis longirostris. 



B. 8. D. 1/7. A. 17. P. 1/9. V. 6. 



The snout is much produced and conical, so that the mouth is about 

 midway between eye and end of the snout. The length of the head 

 is contained thrice and three-fourths in the total (without caudal) ; 

 it is as high as broad, with the crown compressed, the sides obliquely 

 sloping outwards. The eyes are very small, without free circular 

 eyelid ; they are much nearer to the extremity of the snout than 

 to the end of the operculum. The width of the interorbital space is 

 two-thirds of the extent of the snout, which is rather more than one- 

 third of the length- of the head. The upper side of the head is only 

 slightly granulated ; the median fon- 

 ticulus does not extend to the base 

 of the occipital process : the latter is 

 finely granulated, arrow-shaped, twice 

 as long as broad ; below the skin it 

 extends on to the basal bone of the 

 dorsal spine, which is elongate, tri- 

 angular, and finely granulated. A 

 skinny space between the basal bone 

 and the granulated part of the occi- 

 pital process. Opercles covered with 

 skin. The cleft of the mouth is trans- 

 verse, entirely at the lower side of the 

 snout. The teeth are villiform, in 

 broad bands : the intermaxillary band 

 is four times as broad as long ; the 

 vomerine band is immediately behind, 

 and nearly as broad and long as the 

 former. The posterior nostril is nearer 

 to the eye than to the extremity of 

 the snout, and its barbel is slender, 

 not much longer than the eye ; the 

 anterior nostril is in the upper lip, in 

 front of the maxillary barbel. Max- 

 illary and mandibulary barbels small. 

 The gill -membranes are separate 

 nearly to the front of the isthmus. 



The trunk is slightly compressed, 

 whilst the tail is elongate, tapering. 

 The greatest depth of the body is 

 one-fifth of the total length (without 

 caudal), whilst the least depth of the tail is only a little more than 

 one-half of the length of the head. The free portion of the tail, 

 between adipose and caudal fin, equals the base of the adipose fin, and 

 is a little less than one-fifth of the total (without caudal). 



The dorsal spine is strong, not much shorter than the head ; its 

 serrature behind does not point either downwards or upwards, but 





