662 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. vol. xxxm. 



spine of upper lateral series of plates; ventrals reaching just past 

 middle of vent; caudal concave, its length 2.75 in head. 



Color brown, probably red in life, with no black spots or marblings 

 except a spot behind eye and a few dark edgings on ridges of head; 

 pectoral black, pale-edged below; spinous dorsal black; soft dorsal, 

 caudal, and ventral mottled ; a dusky shade below last rays of soft 

 dorsal; outer barbels of mouth black on distal half. (After Jordan 

 and Starks.) 



One specimen, the type. Cat. No. 51428, U.S.N.M., from Station 

 3698, off Manazuru Point, Sagami Bay, in 153 fathoms. 



(ajuiffKos, a diminutive of ^MV, shovel.) 



22. PERISTEDION RIEFFELI (Kaup). 



Peristethus rieffeli Kaup, Proc. Zool. Soc. Loncl., 1859, p. lOG, pi. viii, fig. 3 (Chi- 

 nese insect boxes?). — Gunther, Cat. Fishes, II, 1860, p. 219. 



Peristedion rieffeli Smith and Pope, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XXXI, 1906, p. 488 

 (Urado, Uchinoura Bay, Kagoshima). 



Habitat. — Southern Japan, Uchinoura Bay, Kagoshima, Urado, to 

 China. 



Head 2J; D. VI-19; A". 17; lateral line 32; preorbital processes 2 J 

 in distance from their extremities to the anterior margin of orbit; a 

 single spine in the middle of the forehead, a pair of obtuse ones above 

 the posterior angle of the orbit, and another pair of larger ones on 

 the posterior extremity of the occipital bones; anterior ventral plates 

 irregularly shaped, longer than broad; lateral ridge of head (preop- 

 ercle?) terminating posteriorly in a very long, flat spine; length of 

 snout, without preorbital processes, equal to that of remainder of 

 head; two pairs of barbels; lower side of tail with two additional 

 series of plates, separated by the anal fin; pectoral reaching to fifth 

 plate of dorsal series,- ventral to tliird abdominal plate; very small 

 round dots visible on the head, back, and sides; spines and rays 

 of dorsal fins dotted with brown (condensed from description of 

 Gunther.) 



This species should be readily distinguished from Peristedion orien- 

 tale by the single spine on the upper surface of the snout (not shown 

 in Kaup's figure, however), by the difference in color, and by the 

 presence of the two additional series of plates below the base of the 

 caudal fin. 



We have no specimens of this rare species. Since the time of its 

 original description by Kaup in 1859 no specimens came to the notice 

 of ichthyologists until 1903, when Smith obtained a single specimen 

 at Urado and found two others in the Commercial Museum at 

 Kagoshima. 



(Named by Kaup for ''my true and excellent friend, De Rieffel." 



