2778 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



cal, free posterior margin, its vertical height 3f in its length; the latter 

 over twice its distance from rudimentary caudal rays, greater than base 

 of first dorsal, equal to ^ length of head; caudal with broad lobes, the 

 lower rounded; the upper mutilated in the type, but evidently acute and 

 longer than the lower. Color purplish above, more bluish anteriorly, the 

 lower parts silvery, coarsely punctate with brown ; fins all blackish except 

 the lower surface of the paired fins. In appearance most closely allied to 

 species of Netuma, having the low, depressed head with the lateral out- 

 lines converging forward to the narrow pointed snout, and a long, Largely 

 adherent adipose dorsal. The palatine patches are, however, narrow and 

 without backwardly projecting lobes. The species is distinguished from 

 all those known from the Pacific coast of America by the long and extra- 

 ordinarily narrow occipital process. Type, a female 380 mm. long, from 

 Panama. (&ro$, strange; dvxvv, nape.) 

 Galeichthys xenauchen, GILBERT, Fishes of Panama, MS. 1898, Panama. 



190. GALEICHTHYS GUATEMALENSIS (Giinther). 



Head 3f (4f in total); width of head 5 (6J-); depth 6 (7). D. I, 6; 

 P. I, 10; A. Ill, 15. Length (28140, U. S. Nat. Mus.) 12^ inches. Body 

 slender, its width anteriorly greater than depth; caudal peduncle com- 

 pressed, short ; distance from end of anal to base of median caudal rays 

 about | length of head. Head depressed, not very broad, its depth at 

 posterior margin of branchiostegal membranes less than f its width; 

 interorbital region flat, smooth, the smooth area forming a broad equilat- 

 eral triangle, its base at the interorbital space, the apex at a point 5- the 

 distance from snout to dorsal, the triangle forming the termination of the 

 almost obsolete fontanel; top of head, occipital process, and antedorsal 

 shield finely granular, some of the anterior granulations only arranged m 

 lines, none of them in radiating stria3. Occipital process broadly trape- 

 zoidal, its width slightly greater than the length of its side, with a slight 

 or obsolete median carina; its posterior margin truncated; its sides 

 slightly convex posteriorly, concave toward the front. Dorsal shield 

 small, narrow, crescent-shaped, its median length about ^ the length of 

 its side. Eye small, 6 in head; interorbital width 2'} in head; snout 4 

 in head; breadth of mouth 2. Maxillary barbel very slender, reaching 

 base of pectoral spine; outer mental barbel to well beyond margin of 

 branchiostegal membranes, its length about head; inner mental barbel 

 3 in head. Teeth all villiform ; width of premaxillary band about $ its 

 length ; vomerine and palatine bands of teeth fully confluent on each side, 

 forming together a crescent-shaped patch, narrowly divided on the median 

 line of the vomer; form of vomeriue band similar to that of the palatine 

 baud; palatine band of teeth without backward prolongation; opercle 

 with radiating ridges; humeral process granular, narrow, produced back- 

 ward, not quite length of pectoral spines ; no axillary pore. Gill mem- 

 branes forming a narrow fold across isthmus. Dorsal short, its base 

 about equal to that of the adipose dorsal ; dorsal spine robust, but little 

 shorter than the pectoral spine, about f length of head, its anterior seme 

 small and tubercle-like ; its posterior edge, as well as that of the pectoral, 

 retrorsely serrate; soft rays of dorsal extending much beyond the spine, 



