308 
palatines anteriorly with a patch of similar teeth implanted 
upon a movable cushion; no vomerine nor posterior palatine 
patches. Gillrakers short, stout, few in number. Axillary pore 
present. Steel-blue above, silvery below, faint white spot on 
the occiput and another in the posterior angle of the base 
of the rayed dorsal. Length of single known specimen 294 mm. 
[After Ramsay and Ogilby; not seen by us]. 
Habitat: South New Guinea (Strickland river). 
24. Arius truncatus C. V. 
Arius truncatus Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poissons XV. 1840, p. 64. 
Arius truncatus Cantor, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, XVIII. 1850, p. 1238. 
Cephalocassis truncatus Bleeker, Ichth. Arch. Ind. Prodr. I. Siluri, 1858, p. 108. 
Arius truncatus Bleeker, Atl. Ichthyol. II. 1862, p. 33. 
Arius truncatus Giinther, Cat. Brit. Mus. V. 1864, p. 158. 
BOs: Do eg 3 An 22s S25. Pecos UNO: 
Elongate. Height 5—6; head 3°/,—3?/,, depressed, its greatest 
depth '/, of its length and ?/, of its width. Its crown granular. 
Occipital process about twice as long as broad, its side borders 
nearly parallel, touching with its truncate hindborder the small, 
crescent-shaped basal bone of dorsal spine. Median fontanel 
narrow and long. Dorsal profile very slightly convex, sloping 
down to the flattened, obtusely rounded, slightly prominent 
snout. Eye 6—10, with a free orbital margin, which forms a 
broad, transparent upper eyelid, situated in the second '/, of 
the head, nearly thrice in the convex 
interorbital space. Maxillary barbels ex- 
tending scarcely to the hindborder of the 
operculum, the mandibulary and mental 
ones to the hindborder of the gillmem- 
brane. Height of dorsal longer than head 
Fig. 131. Arius truncatus without snout, osseous part of its spine 
C. V. Teeth of upper jaw 
and palate X nie ! strong, */, of length of head, serrated 
along both edges. Adipose fin elevated, 
its base equal to that of dorsal, the distance from which is 
about 3 times its length. The adipose fin is situated above 
the middle of the anal, which is emarginate and the height of 
which is about equal to postorbital part of head. Ventrals 
reaching to anal, somewhat shorter than pectorals, the spine 
of which is shorter than the dorsal one, serrated along both 
edges. Caudal short, forked, with the lobes obtusely rounded. 
——  —— 
tt a te 
