Osteology and Classification of the Gobioid Fishes. 729 



7V/^^. A(hilt male. B.M. no. 11.10.3.7. Collected 

 IGtli May, 1911, and presented by Capt. F. M. Bailey. 



This Pika is an eastern (Chinese) representative of 0. ne- 

 palensis, the Nepal and Sikhim form, currently synonymized 

 witli 0. roylei, but possibly itself subspecifically separable 

 from that animal. 



The only species previously known from this region was 

 the much smaller 0. ttbetana, of which also Capt, Bailey 

 obtained h specimen, 



LXXXIII.— T'/ie Osteology and Classification of the Gohioid 

 Fishes. By C. Tate Regan, M.A. 



(Published by permission of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The Gobioids are Teleostean fishes of the order Percomorphi ; 

 they differ from the Percoids in several features of specializa- 

 tion and form a well-marked suborder, which may be charac- 

 terized as follows : — 



Suborder Gobioidea. 



Spinous dorsal, when present, of a few flexible spines; 

 anal similar to soft dorsal, without or with but a feeble spine ; 

 pelvic tins thoracic or subjugular, each of a weak spine and 

 4 or 5 soft rays. Gill-membranes attached to isthmus. 

 Skull depressed, more or less contracted between and ex- 

 panded behind the orbits ; parietals absent ; epiotics separated 

 by supiaoccipital ; exoccipital condyles wide apart ; opisthotics 

 large, reaching basioccipital and separating exoccipitals from 

 pro-otics; no basisphenoid and no myodome. Nasals and 

 prseorbitals thin laminge loosely attached to lateral ethmoids ; 

 suborbitals unossified. Hyomandibular very broad ; a large 

 foramen between symplectic, quadrate, and praeoperculum ; 

 raesopterygoid slender or absent ; palatine with a well- 

 developed maxillary process supported by an apophysis of the 

 lateral ethmoid; pi?emaxillaries protractile, with posterior 

 pedicels ; lower pharyngeals separate. Post- temporal forked ; 

 post-cleithrum single; pectoral radials 4, large, laminar, 

 united to form a ))late. Vertebras 25 to 34; tirst centrum 

 with a pair of lateral apophyses which articulate with the 

 exoccipital condyles ; ribs on well-developed transverse 

 parapophyses; epipleurals on ribs. 



