Se 
305 
stiff gillrakers, */, of branchial filaments, about half eye. Length 
about 370 mm. 
Habitat: New Guinea (Lorentz river!, Moaif river! 
Kaiserin-Augusta river!); Aru-islands! 
In rivers. 
21. Arius melanochir Blkr. 
Arius melanochir Bleeker, Nat. Tijdschr. Ned. Ind. III. 1852, p. 590. 
Cephalocassis melanochir Bleeker, Ichth. Arch. Ind. Prodr. I. Siluri, 1858, p. 103. — 
Atl. Ichth. II. 1862, p. 30. 
Arius melanochir Giinther, Cat. Brit. Mus. V. 1864, p. 161. 
pepe aoa A749 PLT, ita 92 3 N..6. 
Elongate; height (measured below dorsal spine) 5'/,, head 
4 or more than 4, the height and the width of the head are 
subequal and about equal to its length without snout. Bones 
on the crown of the head rugous; occipital process narrow, 
much longer than the width of its base, its sideborders nearly 
parallel, its truncate hindborder touches the narrow basal 
bone of the dorsal spine. Dilated, heartshaped median fontanel 
on the occiput, on both sides of which a lateral oval fontanel. 
Eye 6—8, with an incomplete superficial free orbital margin, 
situated in the anterior half of the head, more than twice in 
the length of the snout and in the 
interorbital space. Dorsal profile slightly 
convex, sloping to the conical, bluntly 
rounded, prominent snout. Maxillary 
barbels extending on pectorals, the 
mandibulary ones to the base of the Retro. Aycus melanie 
pectorals, the mental ones to the hind- Blkr. Teeth of upper jaw and 
border of the gillmembrane. Height of Pte X 2- 
dorsal as long as head or somewhat shorter, its strong, flattened 
spine somewhat shorter, its frontborder granulated and serrated 
at its top, the hindborder with the dentations partly directed 
upward. Base of adipose fin much longer than that of anal 
and dorsal, less than 1'/, in its distance from it. Its origin 
far before origin of anal. Height of concave anal equal to the 
ventrals, which don’t extend to its origin. Pectorals scarcely 
shorter than head, with a very strong, flattened spine, serrated 
at both sides, which is slightly shorter than that of the dorsal. 
Small, conical teeth in the jaws and in two widely separate, 
oblique, posteriorly diverging, more or less elliptic patches on 
INDO-AUSTRALIAN FISHEs II. 20 
