308 



palatines anteriorly with a patch of similar teeth implanted 

 upon a movable cushion ; no vomerine nor posterior palatine 

 patches. Gillrakers short, stout, few in number. Axillary pore 

 present. Steel-blue above, silvery below, faint white spot on 

 the occiput and another in the posterior angle of the base 

 of the rayed dorsal. Length of single known specimen 294 mm. 

 [After Ramsay and Ogilby; not seen by us]. 



Habitat: South New Guinea (Strickland river). 



24. Arius truncatus C. V. 



Arius truncatiis Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Nat. Poissons XV. 1840, p. 64. 

 Arius truncatus Cantor, Journ. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, XVIII. 1850, p. 1238. 

 Cephalocassis truncatus Bleeker, Ichth. Arch. Ind. Prodr. I. Siluri, 1858, p. 108. 

 Arius truncatus Bleeker, Atl. Ichthyol. II. 1862, p. 33. 

 Arius truncatus Giinther, Cat. Brit. Mus. V. 1864, p. 158. 



B. 6; D. I. 7; A. 2225; P- I- 9; V. 6. 



Elongate. Height 5 6; head 3 3 / 5 3 3 / 4 , depressed, its greatest 

 depth '/ 2 f i ts length and 2 / 3 of its width. Its crown granular. 

 Occipital process about twice as long as broad, its side borders 

 nearly parallel, touching with its truncate hindborder the small, 

 crescent-shaped basal bone of dorsal spine. Median fontanel 

 narrow and long. Dorsal profile very slightly convex, sloping 

 down to the flattened, obtusely rounded, slightly prominent 

 snout. Eye 6 10, with a free orbital margin, which forms a 

 broad, transparent upper eyelid, situated in the second '/ 4 of 

 the head, nearly thrice in the convex 

 interorbital space. Maxillary barbels ex- 

 tending scarcely to the hindborder of the 

 operculum, the mandibulary and mental 

 nes to the hindborder of the gillmem- 

 brane. Height of dorsal longer than head 

 without snout, osseous part of its spine 



C. V. Teeth of upper jaw ' 



and palate X 4 1 /*- strong, 4 / 5 of length of head, serrated 



along both edges. Adipose fin elevated, 



its base equal to that of dorsal, the distance from which is 

 about 3 times its length. The adipose fin is situated above 

 the middle of the anal, which is emarginate and the height of 

 which is about equal to postorbital part of head. Ventrals 

 reaching to anal, somewhat shorter than pectorals, the spine 

 of which is shorter than the dorsal one, serrated along both 

 edges. Caudal short, forked, with the lobes obtusely rounded. 



