[95] FLOUNDERS AND SOLES. 319 



Genus XLIV.— APIONICHTHYS. 



Apionichthys Kaup, Wieginann's Archiv, 1858, 104 (dumerili). 

 Soleotalpa Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., iv, 489, 1862, (unicolor). 



Type : Soleotalpa unicolor Giinther = Apionichthys dumerili Kaup. 



Besides the species here mentioned, we find in the Zoological Kec- 

 ord a reference to Apionichthys bleeJceri Horst, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. 

 Verh., iv, 30, 1878. It is decribed from a specimen from unknown local- 

 ity in the museum at Utrecht. 



This genus is a near ally of Achiropsis, from which it is only to be 

 separated by the rudimentary character of the left ventral fin. Although 

 it bears some external resemblance to Symphurus, its affinities are with 

 Achirus. The species, if more than one really exists, have yet to be ex- 

 actly defined. 



ANALYSIS OP SPECIES OF APIONICHTHYS. 



a. Left ventral reduced to two minute rays; body ovate-lanceolate, slender, and thinner 

 than in Achiropsis, the eyes much smaller, reduced to mere points ; scales very small, 

 rougb, those on head enlarged a little and fringed ; upper eye in advance of lower, 

 almost in the middle of the length of the head ; gill-openings small, about equal on 

 the two sides ; right ventral beginning at the chin, and extending along the abdomi- 

 nal ridge so that it is continuous with the anal (left ventral destroyed in specimen 

 examined) ; dorsal and aual slightly connected with caudal ; color brown, rather 

 pale, the body and tins profusely covered with round, dark spots of varying sizes 

 the largest as wide as from eye to eye. Head 4| ; depth 2£. * D. 78. A. 56. Scales 

 about 100 Unicolor, 123. 



aa. [Left ventral wholly obsolete ; scales ctenoid, cycloid on blind side ; fin-rays 

 scaly; depth, 2f; head, 4 J. D. 70 to 73. A. 52 to 54. V. 5-0. Lat. 1. 87 to 90. Color 

 clear brownish yellow. ] (Sieindachncr) Ottonis, 124 



123. APIONICHTHYS UNICOLOR. 



Apionichthys dumerili Kaup, Wiegmann's Archiv, 1858, 104. (No locality; no descrip- 

 tion.) 

 Soleotalpa unicolor Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., iv, 1862, 489. (West Indies.) (?) 

 Apionichthys unicolor Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1886, 603. (Name only.) 

 Apionichthys dumerili Bleeker, Nederl. Tydschr. voor Dierkunde, ii, 1865, 305. Stein- 



dachner, Ichth. Beitr., viii, 1878, 48. (Surinam.) 

 Apionichthys nebulosus Peters, Berliner Monatsberichte, 1869, 709. (Surinam.) 



Habitat. — Brazilian fauna. 



We have examined a single specimen of this species (4677 M. C. Z.) 

 2£- inches long, from Obydos, in Brazil. It evidently corresponds to 

 the Apionichthys dumerili of Bleeker and Steindachner, and apparently 

 also to the Apionichthys nebulosus of Peters, although Peters failed to 

 find the rudimentary left ventral fin. This fin, in fact, is not present 

 in the specimen examined by us, it having been destroyed in attaching 

 the metallic tag. 



Giinther's Soleotalpa unicolor may be the same, but the account of 

 the coloration does not accord with the specimen examined by us, nor 



*D.76. A. 57. Scales 92. Color uniform brownish gray {Giinther). D. 72. A. 53. 

 Scales 95. Color brownish, mottled with darker spots {Steindachner). 



