1918.1 N. Annandale: Fish of the Inle Lake. 37 



According to the Intha fishermen, most if not all of the fish of the 

 lake breed in February, March and April. This view is confirmed by 

 an examination of the roes, which were ripe or nearly ripe in all species 

 examined at the end of February and in March ; probably some species 

 breed a little earlier than others, but this is a point on which further 

 investigation is necessary before a definite opinion can be expressed. 



GEOURAPHICAL RELATIONS OF THE FISH OF THE 

 INLE BASIN. 



Thirty-one species of fish, belonging to 7 families and 17 genera are 

 known to live in the Inle basin. Six of these families are widely dis- 

 tributed in the fresh waters of the Oriental and Ethiopian Regions, but 

 one (Chaudhuiiidae), which is described for the first time in this paper, 

 is only known from the Inle Lake, in which it is represented by a small 

 and remarkably primitive species. 



Of the 17 genera, 13 are distributed all over the Indian and the Indo- 

 Chinese sections of the Oriental Region, while one {Monoplcriis) first 

 makes its appearance, as we go from west to east, in Burma, but ranges 

 as a monotypic genus over the whole of the eastern part of the Oriental 

 and the south-eastern districts of the Palaearctic Regions. It may 

 therefore be classed as Far Eastern. Another genus [Microrashora), 

 though here described as new, is possibly also Far Eastern, for the 

 small size of its representatives may well have caused them to be over- 

 looked in many places and species probably occur in the Malay Penin- 

 sula. The remaining two genera of the 17 are only known at present 

 from the Inle basin ; one (Chaudhvria) is the genotype of the new family 

 to which I have already alluded, while the ^^ither {Scnvbwa) is repre- 

 sented by a peculiar little scaleless fish somewhat remote from any 

 species known elsewhere. It belongs to the family Cyprinidae. 



Of the 30 species of fish, no less than 12 {i.e., 2/.5ths or 40 per cent.) are 

 known only from the Inle and He-Ho basins, while a sub-species {Cypri- 

 nus carpio intha) apparently occurs only in the Southern Shan States. 

 Boulenger'^ has noticed (by implication) the Siamese element in the fish- 

 fauna, but this element is much less strongly marked than the endemic 

 one, being represented by but two species. They are Ophiocephalus 

 siamensis and Burilius ornatusr Neither of these is a true lacustrine 

 fish ; both were discovered in the Menani and Barilius ornatus has also 

 been found in the Upper Salween. Small as the Siamese element is, 

 however, it is but little larger than what we may call the endemic 

 Burmese element, which is also represented by two species {Barhvs 

 stoliczkanus and Lejndoce'phalus herdmorei), but in addition by a sub- 

 species of the Indian Barhus sarana. The one Far Eastern species 

 is Monopferus albas. 



A more important element than any of these except the endemic 

 Shan element is that of species which occur in the Indian section of 

 the Oriental Region, that is to say west of the Bay of Bengal. This 



1 Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (6) xii, p. 199 (1893). 



- ?auvage, Bvll Sue. Philom. (Paris) vii, p. 153 (1883). 



