242 FISHES OF WESTERN SOUTH AMERICA 
Type: Serrasalmo nattereri: Kner 
Amazons and La Plata basin 
Adipose fin without rays; palate without teeth; cheek of adult more or less 
fully armed; profile of head very slightly depressed; eye rather small, interorbital 
correspondingly wide; upper jaw short and very oblique; mandible powerful, its 
teeth very long, cutting edges nearly symmetrical, and much larger than those of 
the upper jaw. 
296. ROOSEVELTIELLA NATTERERI (Kner) 
Pygocentrus natterer? Kner, 1859, Denksch. KIX. Akad. Wiss. Wien, XVII, 28, taf. i, fig. 8; 
BHigenmann and Eigenmann, 1891, Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus., XIV, 60; 
Fowler, 1906 (1907), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sei. Phila., LVIII, 468, Pebas; 
Eigenmann, 1910, Rept. Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, III, 442. 
Serrasalmo nattereri Cope, (1871), 1872, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., XXIII, 292, Perkins and 
Orton collections. 
Serrasalmus natterert Norman, 1928, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 787, text figs. 4 and 5; 
Fowler, 1939 (1940), Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., XCI, 271, seven, 98-158 mm., Contamana. 
Rooseveltiella nattereri EKigenmann, 1915, Ann. Carnegie Mus., [X, 242. 
La Plata and Amazon systems 
297. ROOSEVELTIELLA ALTA (Gill) 
Pygocentrus altus Gill, 1870, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., XXII, 93, the Orton collection from the 
Napo or Maranon; 
Eigenmann and Ogle, 1907, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., XX XITI, 35, one, 155 mm. from the Orton 
collections; 
EKigenmann, 1910, Rept. Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, III, 472. 
Rooseveltiella altus Figenmann, 1915, Ann. Carnegie Mus., IX, 244, pl. xlvi. 
Serrasalmus natlerer? Norman, 1928, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 787. 
Maranon basin 
15614, 1, 155 mm., Lago Sanango, Allen, November, 1920. 
15684, 14, 883-170 mm., Rio Pacaya, Allen, August, 1920. 
15685, 2, 122 and 132 mm., Yarinacocha, Allen, August, 1920. 
15686, 4, 133-162 mm., Lago Cashiboya, Allen, August, 1920. 
15687, 1, 142 mm., Iquitos, Allen, September, 1920. 
15688, 3, 102-170 mm., Rio Ucayali, Contamana, Allen, August, 1920. 
15700, 1, 123 mm., Rio Huallaga, Yurimaguas, Allen, November, 1920. 
15910, 1, 108 mm., Pebas, probably Steere coll. 
The members of this subfamily constitute the infamous tribe of ‘‘man-eaters” 
known in the Guianas as the pera’, piraya, and caribe, in Brazil as the piranha 
(pronounced peer-ahn’-yah), and in the Oriente of Peru as para (pronounced pahn’- 
yah). They are most frequently taken in the clearer waters of the quieter, back- 
water bayous and their inlets or outlets, and less abundantly in the swifter and 
muddier waters. They, together with the caymans and such fishes as Roeboides, 
make set-net fishing impossible. Some of my gill-nets were destroyed the very first 
time that they were placed in the water. 
