116 THE AMERICAN CHARACIDAE. 
Anterior anal rays of males with numerous recurved hooklets. Vertebrae 
13 + 20; occipital process not extending back to the vertical from the posterior 
face of the skull. 
Posterior air-bladder continued to the anal, its diameter two thirds that 
of the eye; its length one and a half times that of the anterior section; ali- 
mentary canal little longer than the entire fish. 
2. KNopUS MERIDAE Higenmann. 
Knodus meridae EIGENMANN, Ann. mag. nat. hist., 1910, ser. 8, 7, p. 216 (Merida). 
One specimen, 53 mm. Merida, Venezuela British Museum P. M. Briceno 
Head 4; depth 4; D. 10; A. 16; scales 4-33-2. Eye 3.25 in the head, about 
.8 in snout; 1.25 in the interorbital. 
Basal half of caudal scaled. Slender; dorsal and ventral profiles scarcely 
arched. 
Snout short, blunt; second suborbital covering the entire cheek, without 
a naked angle below its anterior corner; maxillary two in snout and eye; occipital 
process about one eighth the distance of its base from the dorsal. 
Five teeth in the outer row of the premaxillary, the second retreated from 
the line of the rest; four teeth in the inner series of the premaxillary; maxil- 
lary with three broad multicuspid teeth; mandible with eight graduated teeth. 
Two scales between the lateral line and anal; each scale of the sides with 
numerous diverging striae. Large scales on the base of the anal, scales on 
the base of the caudal lobes also large. 
First dorsal a little nearer to the snout than to the base of the middle caudal 
rays, the highest ray a little more than five in the length; upper caudal lobe 
nearly five in the length, the lower slightly shorter; anal scarcely emarginate; 
ventrals reaching to anal, pectorals not quite to ventrals. A broad silvery 
band, tapering on the caudal peduncle, continued to the end of the middle 
caudal rays. No humeral or caudal spots. 
