CO MEMOIRS OF TEE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 



Gknus SOLEICHTHYS, Bleeker. 



SOLEICHTHYS HETERORHINOS, Bleeker. 



Solea heterorhinus, Bleeker, Atlas. Ichth., vi., 186G-1872, p. 17, pi. ccxl., fig. 2. Id., Kent, " Great 

 Barrier Reef," 1893, p. 297, pi. xvi., fig. 5. 



^olea Zmeato, Ramsay, Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, vii., 1883, p. 406. 



The typical specimen of Solea lineata is preserved in the Australian Museum, 

 though it is in very bad condition and has lost some of its fins. It does not differ from 

 an Indian example of S. heterorhinos, and proves Ramsay's description to be inaccurate 

 in several details. He described the pectorals as about twice as long as the head, 

 whereas the right is much longer than the left, and is only about half as long as the 

 head. He counted 120 scales on the lateral line ; I find about 109 on its straight 

 portion as far as the hypural. Ramsay described the posterior dorsal and anal rays 

 as produced ; these have since been lost, so that this detail cannot now be checked. 



S. heterorhinos has been recognised from Thursday Island, Torres Strait, by 

 Kent. Ramsay's t3^e was collected at Port Stephens, New South Wales. 



Genus SYNAPTUEA, Cantor. 



Brachirus, Swainson, Nat. Hist, and Classif. Fishes, ii., 1839, p. 303 (? preoccupied by Brachyrus, 

 Swarnson, loc. cit., p. 264). 



Synaptura, Cantor, Cat. Malay. Fish., 1850, p. 222 (a substitute for Brachirus, considered to be 

 preoccupied). 



Nomenclature. — I am indebted to Professor David Starr Jordan for the follo^^^ng 

 note on the use of the name Synaptura in preference to that of Brachirus. He writes : 

 " I would say that Brachirus Swainson, 1839, p. 303, is antedated by Brachyrus 

 Swainson, p. 264. Both mean Brachychirus apparently." This opinion, it must be 

 noted, is in contradiction to that expressed by Jordan and Evermann^ in regard to 

 Scaphirhynchus and Scaphorhynchus when they wrote : " We regard all generic names 

 not spelled alike as distinct." The matter being open to doubt either way, I follow 

 Professor Jordan in adopting Cantor's Synaptura, which is in common use. 



Key to the species here described. 

 a. Interocular space scaly. 



b. Upper pectoral fin shorter than the eye. 



c. Body with numerous dark cross-bars . . . . . . . . . . . . fasciatus. 



cc. Body without cross-bars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . • . breviceps. 



bb. Upper pectoral fin longer than the eye . . . . . . . . . . . . salinarum, 



aa. Interocular space naked. Body with cross-bars. 



d. Pectorals rudimentary. Scales smaller, 1. lat. 112-130. Less than twenty cross-bars 



cancellatus, 



dd. Pectorals short. Scales larger, 1. lat. 90. Twenty or more cross-bars . . . . craticulus. 



SYNAPTURA CANCELLATA, sp. nov. 

 (Plate VIII. , fig. 1.) 



D. 75 ; A. 67. L. lat. 112 from the operculum to the hypural ; L. tr. 35/1/47. 

 Greatest depth 2-8 in the length from the snout to the hypural ; head 6-7 in the same. 

 Eye about 4, posterior dorsal and anal rays 1-5, median xb,y of right ventral about 3 in 

 the head ; caudal fin almost as long as the head. 



1 Jordan and Evennann, Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 47, part i., 1896, p. 107. 



