456 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



barbel extending to near the end of the veutrals; pectoral spine ser- 

 rate within, with short bristles without. Eye 3i in the head. Head 

 3; D. 8; A. I, 6; V. 7; P. I, 8. Lat. pi. |f . (Cope.) 



melampteriim 448. 



446. Hoplosternum littorale. 



CaUichthiis littoralis Hancock, Zoological Journal, iv, 244, 1828 

 (Demarara); Giiuther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. v, 227 (Demarara, 

 British Guiana; Trinidad); Ltitken, Vidensk. Medd. 1874, 

 215 (Trinidad); Vaillant, Bull. Soc. Philom. series 7, iv, 155, 

 1880 (Calderon); Steindachuer, Flussfische Siidamerika's, iv, 6, 

 1882 (Kio Huallaga); Jordan, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 559, 1886 

 (name only). 



Hoplosternum littorale Eigenm. & Eigenm. Proc. Cal. Acad. 2d Ser. 

 vol.i, 164, 1888 (Surinam; Gurupa; Para; Santarem; Tabatiuga; 

 Arary; Silva, L. Saraca; Villa Bella; Porto do Moz; L. Hyanu- 

 ary; Ueranduba). 



Callichthys suhulatus Cuv. & Val. Hist. Nat. Poiss. xv, 311, 1840 

 (Cayenne; Buenos Ayres). 



Callichthys kevigatus Valenciennes, Voy d'Orbiguy, ix, atlas ii, plate 

 V, fig. 2, 1847; Cuv. & Val. 1. c, 314, 1840 (Buenos Ayres; 

 Trinite); Kner, SB. Ak. Wien, xvii, 1855, Ichthyol. Beitr. 109 

 (no locality). 



Hoplosternum Icevigatuni Gill, Ann. J^jc. Nat. Hist. New York, 

 1858, vi, 396 (Trinidad); Bleeker, Silures de Suriname, 24, 1864 

 (Surinam). 



Callichthys albidus Cuv. & Val. 1. c. 316 (Cayenne). 



Hoj)losternum stevardii Gill, 1. c. 401 (Trinidad). 



Habitat: Bio Plata to Trinidad and Eio Huallaga. 



Depth everywhere greater than the width. Head 

 longer than broad, about as long as broad in the very old; 

 its depth Ij-lo in its length; profile evenly convex, 

 transverse profile arched; fontanel oval or pear-shaped 

 with a bridge across its center, the posterior opening be- 

 coming nearly obsolete in the adult. Suborbital bones 

 and opercle exposed, the former wider than the orbit in 

 the adult. 



Eye circular, equidistant between end of snout and 

 margin of opercle, 83 in the snout, 8 in the head, 5 in 

 the interorbital. 



Inner barbel longer, extending about to the tip of the 

 pectoral spine, shorter in the very old. Snout depressed. 



