702 Bulletin 47, United States National Museum. 



1043. XIPHOPHORTJS GTJNTHERI, Jordan & Evermann, new species. 



We regard Giinther's " var. y" (gamma) from Rio Chisoy, "Body without 

 bands, covered all over with irregular spots " as probably a species dis- 

 tinct from X. helleri. Giinther's figure shows the form, proportions, and 

 fin rays of the latter, the dorsal in the female lower and more spotted, 

 and both sexes covered with dark blotches of various sizes, irregular in 

 form and distribution, more of them vertical than horizontal, and cover- 

 ing head, back, and sides ; caudal unspotted, its appendage white, edged 

 with black above and below. Rio Chisoy, basin of Rio Usumacinta, 

 Guatemala. (Named for Dr. Albert Gunther.) 



XiphopJiorus helleri, var. y, GUNTHER, Cat., vi, 350, 1866, Rio Chisoy, Guatemala. (Coll. God- 

 man & Salvin); and GUNTHER, Fishes Centr. Amer., pi. 87, figs. Sand 4, 1869. 



Family XCIII. AMBLYOPSHXE. 

 (THE BLIND FISHES.) 



Body moderately elongate, compressed behind. Head long, depressed. 

 Mouth rather large, the lower jaw projecting; premaxillaries long, 

 scarcely protractile, forming entire margin of upper jaw. Jaws and pal- 

 atines with bands of slender villiform teeth. Branchiostegals about 6. 

 Gill rakers very short. Pseudobranchise concealed. Gill membranes more 

 or less completely joined to the isthmus. Head naked, the surface some- 

 times crossed by papillary ridges. Body with small cycloid scales, irreg- 

 ularly placed; no lateral line. Vent jugular, close behind the gill 

 openings. Ventral fins small or wanting; pectorals moderate, inserted 

 higher than in most soft-rayed fishes ; dorsal without spine, nearly oppo- 

 site the anal; caudal truncate or rounded. Cranium without median 

 crest. Stomach ccecal, with 1 or 2 pyloric appendages. Air bladder 

 present. Ovary single. Some (and probably all) of the species ovovivip- 

 arous. In two of the genera the eyes are very rudimentary and hidden 

 under the skin, and the body is translucent and colorless. Fishes of small 

 size, living in subterranean streams and swamps of the southern United 

 States. Three genera and five species are " all of the family yet known, 

 but that others will be discovered, and the range of the present known 

 species extended, is very probable. The ditches and small streams of the 

 lowlands of our southern coast will undoubtedly be found to be the home 

 of numerous individuals, and perhaps of new species and genera, while 

 the subterranean streams of the central portion of our country most 

 likely contain other species." (Putnam.) This group is doubtless a very 

 ancient one and the blind forms are without doubt descendants of the 

 eyed genus Chologaster, or at least of forms closely allied to it. The singu- 

 lar position of the vent is repeated in the peculiar family, Aphredoderidce, 

 likewise a relic of a lost fauna. (Heteropygii, Giinther, Cat., vn, 1, 2, 1868.) 



a. Eyes developed; body colored; ventrals obsolete; pyloric coeca2. CHOLOGASTER, 321. 

 aa. Eyes rudimentary, concealed; body colorless; pyloric coacum single. 



b. Ventral fins present. AMBLYOPSIS, 322. 



bb. Ventral fias obsolete. TYPHLICHTHYS, 323. 



