﻿36o 



with the tail underneath. Teeth conical, compressed, partly 

 depressible, in the maxillaries 8 — 12, mostly uniserial; they may 

 be biserial [polyodon) or only on one side so. On the inter- 

 maxillary plate a peripheral series of 9 to 20 and 2 to 3 mesial 

 ones; on vomer a single series ofabout4 — lO; in the mandibles 

 12 — 24 in one row, the anterior ones may be irregularly 

 biserial. Brownish olive or sulphur yellow (when alive), anterior 

 part of head with small blackish dots, fins with a white margin. 

 Length 800 mm. [Type of G, viegapterus in the Zoological 

 Museum of Amsterdam], 



Habitat: Nias!; Bawean!; Savu!; Timor; Ambon!; Ceram; 

 New Guinea. — Madagascar, Mauritius, Japan, Pacific Islands. 



Posterioi 



3. Subgenus Gymnothorax Bloch. 



(Bloch, Ausland. Fische IX, 1795, p. 83). 



nostrils a round or oval opening on the top of 

 the head before eye, sometimes pro- 

 vided with a nm, but never with a 



Height less than 



Teeth 



Fig. 180, Opened mouth of Mmaiiea 

 (Gymnotho7-axJ picta Ahl, to show the 

 mesial tooth immediately behind the 

 peripheral series of intermaxillary teeth 

 which it equals in size. Vomerine 

 teeth in a double series. 



Fig, 181. Head of Muraena (Gymnothorax) 



zonipectis Seale, with opened mouth to 



show the mesial depressible fang (w) on the 



intermaxillary plate, X 2. 



Artificial key to the indo-australian species 

 of the Subgenus Gymnothorax, 



A. Mesial teeth on intermaxillary plate conical^ not longer than those of 

 the peripheral series^ one or two in nuuiber (Fig. 180), 



