PART III.-PLECTOGNATHI AND PEDICULATI. 



By N. Annandale, D.Sc, F.A.S.B., Snpevintendent, Indian Museum, and ] . T. 

 Jenkins, B.Sc. (Lond.), D.Sc. (Wales), PkD. [Kiel), Superintendent, Lanca- 

 shire and Western Sea Fisheries, late Fishery Adviser, Government of Bengal. 



INTRODUCTION. 



As comparatively few sharks and dog-fish have been taken by the "Golden 

 Crown," and as the collection of vSelachians in the Indian Museum is by no means 

 complete, we have thought it best to defer the consideration of this group. More- 

 over, to describe the Teleostei in the collection of the "Golden Crown" in an 

 adequate manner will mean little less than a revision of the Indian representatives of 

 all the families of which specimens have been obtained, and this work cannot yet be 

 undertaken as regards the larger groups. We have therefore decided to deal, in 

 the first instance, with those groups that are compact and of moderate size without 

 reference to their exact systematic position. As a beginning we here discuss the sub- 

 orders Plectognathi and Pediculati, in our arrangement of which we follow Mr. 

 Boulenger's account of the Teleostei in the Cambridge Natural History, vol. vii (1904). 



Most of the specimens of these suborders that Day has figured in his Fishes of India 

 are in the collection of the Indian Museum, including the types of several species. In 

 the "Golden Crown " collection the Triacanthidae and Tetrodontidae of the Bay of 

 Bengal are fairly well represented , but the BaHstidae , Diodontidae and Pediculati poorly. 

 The Bali.stidae and Diodontidae are mainly species which frequent coral reefs, but coral 

 reefs do not occur in the northern part of the Bay of Bengal, and it is only near the 

 southern limits of the trawler's cruises, that is to say, off the Madras coast, that 

 BaHstidae have been taken. Their presence there is probably due to the large masses 

 formed by molluscs of the genera Siliqnaria and Spiroglyphus and almost comparable 

 to coral reefs in growth. The Indian Pediculati, on the other hand, are mostly deep- 

 sea forms; the majority of the species that belong to our fauna have been described 

 by Col. Alcock or by Capt. I^loyd from the "Investigator" collections, the types 

 being in the Indian Museum. 



We must express our obligations to Prof. Max Weber of Amsterdam for valuable 

 notes on the genera Triacanthus and Halieutaea. 



I.— Suborder PLECTOGNATHI. 



LIST OF THE PIvECTOGNATHI OF INDIAN SEAS. 



[The names of species not represented in the collection of the Indian Museum are 

 printed m italics. Those of species taken by the " Golden Crown ' ' are distingui.shed 



