No. XVIIL— NEW FISHES FEOM ALDABRA AND ASSUMPTION, COLLECTED 



BY MR J. C. F. FRYER. 



By C. Tate Regan, M.A. 

 (Communicated by Prof. J. Stanley Gardiner, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S.) 



Read 1st February 1912. 



A SMALL collection of fishes from the Indian Ocean made by Mr J. C. F. Fryer and 

 sent to me for determination by Professor Stanley Gardiner, includes examples of three 

 species apparently new to science, including a new eel of some interest, as although it 

 seems to be an Anguillid in most of its characters, it has the branchial openings into the 

 pharynx small, as in the Mursenidse. 



Family Anguillidse. 

 Xenoconger, gen. nov. 



Body elongate, naked ; dorsal and anal fins well developed, confluent with the 

 reduced caudal ; no pectorals or ventrals. Snout broad and flat ; nostrils lateral, the 

 anterior with a short tube. Mouth terminal, moderately wide ; maxillary ending just 

 behind eye, not extending to angle of mouth. Teeth pointed, conical or slightly com- 

 pressed, forming broad bands in the lower jaw ; maxillary teeth biserial ; vomerine teeth 

 a rounded patch continued backwards as a pair of curved bands, each of a smaller outer 

 and larger inner series. 



Palato-pterygoids present, anteriorly embracing the vomer ; lower pharyngeals con- 

 vergent anteriorly, not separating the other branchial arches ; tongue not free ; branchial 

 openings into the pharynx small ; external branchial apertures lateral, of moderate size. 



Apparently nearest to Nettastoma and its allies, but difiering widely in the short 

 snout and restricted inner branchial apertures. 



1. Xenoconger fryeri, sp. n. 



Tail nearly twice as long as rest of fish ; head about f of the length from gill-opening 

 to vent; head as broad as deep, its depth less than ^ its length; snout rounded anteriorly, 

 slightly broader than long, its length nearly \ the length of head and 3 times the 

 diameter of eye. Jaws equal anteriorly ; cleft of mouth horizontal, extending behind eye 

 a distance equal to the diameter of the latter. Anterior nostril near end of snout ; 

 posterior in front of lower part of eye. Dorsal commencing at a distance from the gill- 

 opening equal to | the length of head. Brownish, spotted or marbled with blackish. 



A single specimen, 400 mm. in total length, from Assumption Island. Mr Fryer 

 captured it in a large pit in the rock, about 10 yards square and 10 to 15 feet deep, which 

 was apparently cut off from the sea although it was nearly full of sea-water. 



