98 THE AMERICAN CHARACIDAE. 



Head 4 + ; depth 3 + ; D .11 ; A. 25; scales 5-35-3.5. Eye 2.25-2.75; inter- 

 orbital 3 in the head. 



Slender, dorsal and ventral profiles regular; preventral area flat, with a 

 median series of twelve scales; predorsal area rounded, with a median series of 

 ten scales; occipital process about one fifth of the distance from its base to the 

 dorsal; interorbital very little arched; second suborbital nearly covering the 

 entire cheek in the largest, with a wider naked border in the smaller; maxillary 

 about one third of the length of the head; its anterior margin not as greatly 

 arched as in M. dichroura. Premaxillary with three or four teeth in the anterior 

 series, five in the inner series; dentary with four large teeth, the anterior two 

 not in a continuous series with the posterior two in the larger specimens, the third 

 tooth being farther in. Gill-rakers one fourth to four tenths the length of the eye. 



Origin of dorsal in middle of the body; origin of ventrals further forward; 

 pectorals reaching the ventrals, ventrals to anal. Scales with up to eight 

 divergent striae. 



A silvery lateral band, middle caudal rays and tips of the lobes or a submargi- 

 nal band black. 



The specimens described by Fowler are more slender than the others. 



21. MOENKHAUSIA LEPIDUBA LEPIDURA (Kner). 



Plate 8, fig. 2. 



Tetragonopterus lepidurus Kner, Characinen, 1859, p. 40, tab. 8, fig. 20 (Rio Guapor6) ; Giinther, Cat. 

 fishes Brit, mus., 1864, 6, 328; Steindachner, Flussf. Sudam., 1882, 4, p. 32 (Tabatinga; Cudajas; 

 Obidos; Villa Bella); Eigenmann & Eigenmann, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 1891, 14, p. 53; Ulrey, 

 Ann. N. Y. acad. sei., 1895, 8, p. 278; Vaillant, Bull. Mus. d'hist. nat, 1899, p. 155 (Carnot). 



Moenkhausia lepidurus Eigenmann, Rept. Princeton univ. exped. Patagonia, 3, 1910, p. 438. 



Moenkhausia lepidura Eigenmann, Mem. Carnegie mus., 1912, 6, p. 326. 



Habitat. — Amazons Basin and north to Guiana. 



The types in the Vienna Museum have the depth three and one half in the 

 length. Aside from the types I have examined the following: 



Catalogue Number of Length 



number specimens in mm. Locality Collector 



20954 5 63 to about 90 Jatuarana Navez 



20743 4 70-85 Tajapurii Agassiz 



21062 12 68-80 Arary Thayer 



20722 1 90 Gurupa Agassiz 



20790,20788,20778 34 63-84 Santarem Bourget 



