200 



Records of the Indian Museum. 



[Vol.. XIX, 



D. 3/8. P. 9/12. V. 2/9. 



The true Balitora maculata originally figured b}^ Gray and 

 Hardwicke differs considerably from the fish described by Day 

 under the name of Homaloptera maculata. The differences are so 

 great that I have separated Day's species and have described it 

 under a new genus as Bhavania annandalei. Apart from the 

 characters of the mouth, jaws and barbels, the following points of 

 differences are clear from a comparison of the figures in Day's 

 "Fishes of India" (pi. cxxii, fig. 2) and in Gray's " Illustrations 

 of Indian Zoology ": — 



Gray's species differs from Day's in the very great expansion 

 of the pectoral fins, in their being definitely pedunclate, in the 

 shorter and l^roader head and in markings. Day's figure of the 



Fig. 2. — Balitora maculata, Gray and Hard. 



A. Ventral view of head and chest X ig. 



B. Dorsal view of head and fleshy pectoral peduncles X ij. 



mouth shows only two pairs of barbels, the two at the angle of the 

 mouth being very long ; while Gray's figure shows two pairs of 

 short, stumpy rostral barbels. 



There are two specimens in the collection of the Indian 

 Museum (Cat. No, 939), labelled by Day as Homaloptera maculata 

 which can be referred to Balitora maculata of Gray. These 

 specimens were collected by Dr. Wallich at Darjihng and the one 

 figured b}' Gray was probably collected in Northern India as 

 were most of the specimens figured in the ''Illustrations." It is a 

 pity that Day's South Indian specimen (No. 15 10) in the 

 Museum is in a very bad condition, as it is probably the original 

 of his figure. 



In both specimens of the true B. maculata 1 have seen the 

 caudal fin is wanting, otherwise they are in a fairly good state 



