4'^ Records of the Indian Museum. [^""oT-. XIY, 



The largest specimen examined is 52 mm. long, but individuals of 

 little more than half that length were found to be sexually mature. 



Types pecime7i.- — No. F 9402/1 Zoological Survey of India {Ind. Mus.). 



Locality. — ^Inle Lake, Southern Shan States (alt. 3000 ft.) ; February, 

 1917. 



The structure of the vertebrae is peculiar. The centra are elongate, 

 amphicoelous, broader in front than behind and much constricted in 

 the middle. Their ephiphyses sometimes remain distinct and the 

 elements that form the neural and haemal arches, though welded 

 together, are never incorporated with them but remain as a kind of 

 cloak only attached to them at the sides. They have a thin and mem- 

 branous character. The neural arch (except at the extremity of the 

 tail) bears two spines or a spine and a flattened triangular plate 

 which projects vertically upwards. On the first two vertebrae these 

 structures are incompletely fused together, but on the vertebrae of 

 the trunk and on the caudal vertebrae they are quite distinct. 

 On the trunk and on the anterior part of the caudal region the 

 anterior process has a lamellar form, but on the greater part of the 

 caudal region it is a spine closely resembling the posterior one but 

 directed less backwards. The zygopophyses, both neural and haemal, 

 are well-developed both on the precaudal and the aiiterior caudal 

 vertebrae. 



Two of the four specimens obtained were taken in fishing-baskets 

 filled with peat and weeds and sunk in the open lake, the other two 

 amidst dense vegetation at the edge of floating islands. The stomach 

 of a specimen was full of young crustaceans apparently still in their 

 egg-shells. 



In one female, captured at the end of February, the ovaries were 

 ripe. They contained ova in all stages of development. The largest 

 eggs, which were about to be laid, were broadly ovoid or subspherical. 

 They were about 0-68 mm. long by 0-59 mm. broad. At one end there 

 was a depression probably surrounding a minute micropyle. The ovum 

 was contained in a delicate horny shell marked with asymmetrical 

 sinuous concentric striae and raised at either side of the terminal de- 

 pression into a low ridge. 



Order SYMBRANCHOIDEA, 



Family SYMBRANCHIDAE. 

 Monopterus albus (Zuiew). 



188!). Moii.opieras javdneiiai-i. Day, Faun. Brit. Ind., Fishes I, p. 70, fif^. -S. 



1889. Monopterus javanensis, Vinciguerra, Arm. Mus. Star. Nat. Oenova (2) IX 



(xxix), p." 357. 

 1!)16. Monopterus albus, Weber, Fishes Jndo-Aiistr. Arch. Ill, p. 413, figs. I'K), 211. 



This fish is not uncommon at the edge of the Inle Lake but is 

 perhaps more abundant in pools and rice-fields. It is eaten by the 

 Intha but not by the Shans, who think that its flesh causes leprosy. 

 It is usually captured with a two-pronged spear. 



The species is found all over Southern Asia east of the Bay of Benga! ; 

 its range extends to Northern China and Japan. 



