[95 | FLOUNDERS AND SOLES. 319 
Genus XLIV.—APIONICHTHYS. 
Apionichthys Kaup, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1858, 104 (dumerili). 
Soleotalpa Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., iv, 489, 1862, (wnicelor). 
TYPE: Soleotalpa unicolor Giinther = Apionichthys dumerili Kaup. 
Besides the species here mentioned, we find in the Zoological Ree- 
ord a reference to Apionichthys bleekeri Horst, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. 
Verh., iv, 30,1878. It is decribed from aspecimen from unknown loeal- 
ity in the museum at Utrecht. 
This genus is a near ally of Achiropsis, from which it is only to be 
separated by the rudimentary character of the left ventral fin. Although 
it bears some external resemblance to Symphurus, its affinities are with 
Achirus. The species, if more than one really exists, have yet to be ex- 
actly defined. 
ANALYSIS OF SPECIES OF APIONICHTHYS, 
a. Left ventral reduced totwo minute rays; body ovate-lanceolate, slender, and thinner 
than in Achiropsis, the eyes much smaller, reduced to mere points; scales very small, 
rough, those on head enlarged a little and fringed; upper eye in advance of lower, 
almost in the middle of the length of the head; gill-openings small, about equal on 
the two sides; right ventral beginning at the chin, and extending along the abdomi- 
nal ridge so that it is continuous with the anal (left ventral destroyed in specimen 
examined); dorsal and anal slightly connected with caudal; color brown, rather 
pale, the body and fins profusely covered with round, dark spots of varying sizes, 
the largest as wide as from eye toeye. Head 41; depth 22. *D.78. A.56. Scales 
NUR fel eh es hanela cei apace cle win ako hie wey wl psd ied te ats UNICOLOR, 123. 
aa. [Left ventral wholly obsolete; scales ctenoid, cycloid on blind side; fin-rays 
scaly ; depth, 23; head, 44. D. 70to73. A.52t054. V. 5-0. Lat.1.87+t090. Color 
elear/brownish yellow. |, (Steindachner)....--0. ..--2. -20 -. eee. eee eee OTTONIS, 124 
123. APIONICHTHYS UNICOLOR. 
Apionichthys dumerili Kaup, Wiegmann’s Archiv, 1858, 104. (No locality ; no descrip- 
tion. 
Soleotalpa Bik Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., iv, 1862, 489. (West Indies.) (?) 
Apionichthys unicolor Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886, 603. (Name only.) 
Apionichthys dumerili Bleeker, Neder]. Tydschr. voor Dierkunde, ii, 1865, 305. Stein- 
dachner, Ichth. Beitr., viii, 1878, 48. (Surinam. ) 
Apionichthys nebulosus Peters, Berliner Monatsberichte, 1869, 709. (Surinam.) 
Habitat.—Brazilian fauna. 
We have examined a single specimen of this species (4677 M. C. Z.) 
23 inches long, from Obydos, in Brazil. It evidently corresponds to 
the Apionichthys dumerilt of Bleeker and Steindachner, and apparently 
also to the Apionichthys nebulosus of Peters, although Peters failed to 
find the rudimentary left ventral fin. This fin, in fact, is not present 
in the specimen examined by us, it having been destroyed in attaching 
the metallic tag. 
Giinther’s Soleotalpa unicolor may be the same, but: the account of 
the coloration does not accord with the specimen examined by us, nor 




*D.76. A.57. Scales 92. Color uniform brownish gray (Giinther). D. 72) -An 53, 
Seales 95, Color brownish, mottled with darker spots (Steindachner), 
