Ostevlojy and Classificatt'on of the Gobioid Fishes. 729 



Type. .V\yy\i malf. B.M. no. 11.10.3.7. Collected 

 I61I1 May, 1911, and presented by Capt. F. M. Bailey. 



This Pika is au eastern (Cliinese) representative of 0. ne- 

 palensis, the Nepal and Sikhini form, currently synonymized 

 with O. roi/Iei, but possibly itself subspecifically separable 

 from that animal. 



The only species previously known from this region was 

 the much smaller 0. libetami^ of which also Capt. Bailey 

 obtained a specimen. 



LXXXIII. — The OsteoJogif and Classification of the Gobioid 

 Fishes. By 6. Tate Regan, M.A. 



(Published by permissiou of the Trustees of the British Museum.) 



The Gobioids are Teleostean fislies of the order Percomorphi ; 

 they differ from the Percoids in several features of specializa- 

 tion and form a well-marked suborder, which mixy be charac- 

 terized as follows : — 



Suborder Gobioidea. 



Spinous dorsal, when present, of a few flexible spines ; 

 anal similar to soft dorsal, without or with but a feeble spine ; 

 pelvic fins thoracic or subjugular, each of a weak spine and 

 4 or 5 soft rays. Gill-membranes attached to istiimus. 

 Skull depressed, more or less contracted between and ex- 

 panded behind the orbits ; parietals absent ; epiolics separated 

 by supraoccipital ; exoccipital condyles wide apart ; opisthotics 

 large, reaching basioccipital and separating exoccipitals from 

 pro-ctics; no basisphenoid and no myodome. Nasals and 

 pra.'orbital3 thin laminai loosely attached to lateral ethmoids; 

 suborbitals unossified. Hyomandibular very broad ; a large 

 foramen between symplectic, quadrate, and prteoperculum ; 

 mesopterygoid slender or absent ; palatine with a well- 

 developed maxillary process supported by an apophysis of the 

 lateral ethmoid; piajmaxillaries protractile, with posterior 

 pedicels ; lower pharyngeals separate. Post- temporal forked ; 

 post-cleithrum single; pectoral radials -4, large, laminar, 

 united to form a plate. Vertebrse 25 to 3-4; first centrum 

 with a pair of lateral apophyses which articulate with the 

 exoccipital condyles ; ribs on well-developed transverse 

 parapophyscs; cpipleurals on ribs. 



