77 



2. Micrognathus mataafae (Jordan & Scale). 

 33. P- 75]- 



Corythroichthys mataafae Jordan & Scale, Bull. Bur. Fish. XXV. (1905) 1906, p. 213. 

 Syngnathus mataafae Gtinther, Fische d. Siidsee. 1910, p. 431. 

 Syngnathus mataafae Max Weber, Siboga-Expeditie, Fische. 1913, p. 1 12. 

 Micrognathus Mataafae Duncker, Mitt. a. d. naturh. Mus. Hamburg XX XI I. 

 1915, p. 76. 



D. 2123; A. 23; P. 1213; C. 10; Rings 15 + 3435; 

 subdorsal rings I + 4. 



Trunk heptagonal, tail tetragonal; more slender than pre- 

 ceding species. Edges of rings smooth. Intermedial shields 

 large. Head more than 10 to more than ii ! / 2 times in length. 

 Eye more than 3 l / 2 times in head. Snout very short, thick, 

 with a median crest of 4 6 rather strong teeth; it is longer 

 than eye and than half length of postorbital part of head, 

 about thrice in length of head. Operculum with a feeble basal 

 keel but with numerous radiating lines. A fringed cutaneous 

 appendage on top of each orbit and a single one on middle 

 of nape, besides a pair on snout behind eye. Tail twice or 

 more longer than the length of the trunk. Caudal short, about 

 equal to eye. Anal minute; pectorals shorter than opercle. 

 Colour whitish, a silvery brown rimmed spot on the inter- 

 medial shields. Head with dusky lines and spots or light brown 

 with 10 ii whitish cross bars on back, 3 in front of dorsal, 

 2 below dorsal, the others on tail. Length 115 mm. 



Habitat: Timor!; Island Salomakiee !. -- Samoa. 



On coral reefs. 



12. Syngnathus Linne (Kaup). 



(LiNNE, Syst. nat. edit. X. 1758, p. 336). 

 KAUP, Cat. Lophobr. Fish, 1856, p. 32. 



Body slender, elongate, not compressed, hexagonal, or tetra- 

 gonal, tapering into a long tetragonal tail. Shields more or 

 less transversally striated, their edges smooth or serrated. 

 Intermedial shields (scutella) generally present as also a nuchal 

 and praenuchal shield. Superior cristae of trunk and tail dis- 

 continuous; inferior cristae of trunk and tail continuous; median 

 cristae of trunk and inferior cristae of tail discontinuous, but 

 the former and the superior cristae of tail continuous or sub- 

 continuous. Head generally slender and tapering gently into 



