12 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



terior at a notch in the posterior margin 

 of the temporal plate at the begiiming 

 of the lateral line. LORICARIID.E vn. 



a. Tail long, depressed, with a single series of plates on the sides; intes- 

 tinal canal usually not much longer than the body. Loricariinw . 



aa. Tail short, compressed or rounded. 



b. Belly with two or three series of large plates. Hypoptopominw. 



,bb. Belly naked or with minute granular plates; intestinal canal many 



times as long as the body. Ple.costomincK . 



gg. Caudal vertebrae normal, the neural and 

 hasmal spines spike-like, separated from 

 each other. Sides with two series of 

 plates. Mouth terminal, lower lip not 

 reverted; teeth villiform; cavity of the 

 air bladder communicating with the ex- 

 terior by means of a long narrow slit in 

 the temporal plate and by the last of a 

 series of slits below the long one. 



CALLICHTHYID.E vm. 



FAMILY I. BUNOCEPHALIDJE. 



= Aspredinoidei Bleeker, Nederl. Tijdschr. Dierk. i, 

 1863, 117. 



= Aspredinina Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus. v, 266, 

 1864. 



= Aspredinidw Gill, Arrangement of the Families of 

 Fishes 19, 1872. 



=Bunocephalidcv Eigeiim. & Eigenm. Am. Nat. July, 

 1888. 



Air bladder large, free in the abdominal cavity and 

 touching the skin in the area bounded by the humeral 

 process and by the lateral process of the anterior ver- 

 tebrae. Anterior vertebras coalesced, with broad lateral 

 processes which are bent downward behind, their pos- 

 terior margins strengthened and prolonged outward, 



