]12 MASTACEMBELID.E. 



Suborder IX. O P I S T li O :S1 1. 



Air-bladder without open duct. Operculum well developed, hiddeu 

 under the skin ; supraoccipital separating tlic parietals, in contact with 

 tlie frontal. Pectoral arch suspended from the vertebral column, far 

 behind the skull ; no mesocoracoid. Dorsal and anal fins with spines, 

 ventrals absent. 



Fam. 1. MASTACEMBELID.E. 



P>ody more or less eel-shaped ; a series of short spines detached from 

 the very elongate dorsal fin. Scales very small. Anterior nostril widely 

 separated from the posterior, and opening in a tentacle on each side of a 

 dermal rostral appendage. Moutii not protractile, bordered by the pra'- 

 maxillaries, to the ujiper border of which the maxillaries are attached, 

 (i ill-opening inferior ; gills 4 ; branchiostegal rays 6 ; no pseudobninchia?. 

 Vertebrae numerous (72-95), the pra-caudals with transverse ])rocesses 

 bearing the ribs. 



Fresh and brackish waters of Southern Asia and Trt)incal Africa. 



A single genus in Africa. 



1. MASTACEMBELUS. 

 Gronov. Zoophyl. p. IJ^:? (1781), [.art. ; Uiintli. (at. Fi^li. iii. p. .540 (ISOl); 

 Botdcng. "I'oiss. Bass. Congo, p. 4'.)1) (IHOI), Fish. }sik-, p. 540 (11>07), and 

 Journ. Ac. Tliilad. (2) xv. 1912, p. 197. 

 llostral appendage not striated inferiorly. Dorsal with 7 to 39 spines, 

 anal with 1 to 3. 



South-eastern Asia, China, Euphrates, Oxus, and Tropical Africa. 

 In all the African species the caudal fin is confluent with the dorsal 

 and anal. 



Si/nojysis of the Species. 



I. Vent equally or nearly equally distant from end of snout and from camlal 



lin. 



A. Less than 20 dorsal spines ; no pr:corl)ital or pra'opcrcular spines. 

 D. VII 105 ; A. Ill 70 ; length of liead * 5^ 



times in totallenjiiii 1. .1/. y'(n(c;Vy»//(/.S Blgr., p. 115. 



D XVIII 85 ; A. II 90 ; length of head 83 



timi'S in total length i. M. fremitus, Ti\gY., y. \\(k 



The head is measured to the gill-opeuiiig, and the rostral appendage is not included. 



