ON CTENOLUCIUS GILL, A NEGLECTED GENUS OF 

 CHARACIN FISHES, WITH NOTES ON THE TYPICAL 

 SPECIES. 



By Barton A. Bean, 



As.si.'itdiil i'liralar, Division of FisJics. V. H. NntiomiJ Museum. 



In a footnote to his Catalogue of the fishes of the east coast of 

 North America, Greenhmd to Georgia, inserted at the end of the 

 Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 XTII, for^JSOl (1802), page 8, Dr. Theodore N. Gill jh-o posed the 

 name Ctenohicivs for fishes closely allied to the Xiphosfomas of Spix, 

 but having the dorsal fin placed far back, the scales very strongly 

 ctenoid, etc. I quote Doctor Gill's note in full : 



In a species preserved in the ]\Iuseniii of the Smithsonian Institution, nearly 

 allied to the Xipliosfoinas of Spix, and es[»ecially to the Xiiihosloiiia Itujrtd of 

 Valenciennes, the scales ai'c covered with numerous closely approximated 

 ridges abruptly commFncin;; at the bases of their exposed surfaces and ter- 

 minating in as many strong teeth on the posterior margin, \alcuciennes has 

 not described the structiire of the scales in the species of Xipliostoiiia known to 

 him. But he, as well as Miiller and Trosehel in the "Home Ichthyologicse," 

 have mentioned them as being of moderate size. The ridges and pectinated 

 margins of those of our fish are so strongly marked that it is scarcely possible 

 that they should have been ovei']ook(Hl if they occurred in the si)ecies known to 

 the very excellent naturalists above mentioned. 



The dorsal fin of our fish is more posterior than in the ty]ncal Xiphofitomas, 

 being above the anal; the anus is under the anterior rays of the dorsal. In this 

 respect it resembles Xi/phostoma maculatuni and A', tinjcta of ^'alenciennes. 



Three specimens of the species were collected at Truando by Mr. Arthur Schott 

 on Lieutenant ^Nlichler's expedition to the Atrato River. They will be described 

 under the generic name of Ctciiolucius. It must remain undecided whether the 

 two species of Xiphofitoma of Valenciennes, agreeing in the i)ositiou of the 

 dorsal and anal fins, are really congeneric. 



In 1878, in his paper entitled Zur Fisch-Fauna des Magdalenen- 

 Stromes, Dr. Franz Steindachner described a species of Characin 

 from the Magdalena River under the generic name Luciooharax, w^ith 

 the folloAving characterization: Form of body and snout essentially 

 as in Xlphostoma. Intermaxillary and lower jaw very long, the 

 former beset anteriorly with two rows of larger teeth. The palatine 

 teeth numerous and very small. Dorsal and anal inserted far back- 



Proceedinqs U. S. National Museum, Vol. XXXIIl— No. 1588. 



701 



