ELEOTRIS 33 



Eleotris fused reaches maturity while still small. Collections 

 made on August 19, 1925, in Mambugan swamp, San Jose de 

 Buenavista, Antique Province, and from Miriri River in the 

 same province contained spawning females from 36 to 60 mil- 

 limeters long. 



This retiring eleotrid is usually very dark colored in life and 

 lies among stones or on the bottom where it can be detected 

 only with difficulty. It is evidently a voracious and indis- 

 criminate feeder, specimens often being found with the stomach 

 filled with vegetable tissues as well as with mollusca, Crustacea, 

 and "other fishes. Young specimens are slenderer, while a 

 spawning female collected from Dumaguete River on March 11, 

 1922, is much stouter than the proportionate measurements given 

 for the species would indicate. According to Gunther, it reaches 

 a length of "ten inches," about 255 millimeters, but I have seen 

 no large Philippine specimens. 



This fish is common in rivers near the sea throughout the 

 Philippines, south of and including the Manila Bay region. It 

 is of wide range, occurring from Madagascar and the rivers 

 of the east coast of Africa to Guam, and the Society Islands. 



5. ELEOTRIS MELANOSOMA Bleeker 



Eleotris melanosoma BLEEKER, Nat. Tijd. Ned. Ind. 3 (1852) 705; 



GtiNTHER, Cat. Fishes Brit Mus. 3 (1861) 126. 

 Culiiis melanosoma. BLEEKER, Rev. Especes Eleotriformes, Versl. Akad. 



Amsterdam 11 (1875) 43. 



Ilocano name, virot. 



Dorsal VI, 1-8 or 9; anal I, 8 or 9; there are from 48 to 52 

 scales from the gill opening to the caudal fin and 14 or 15 in 

 a transverse series from the origin of the second dorsal to that 

 of the anal ; there are 10 or 12 scales in a transverse series across 

 the caudal peduncle and from 37 to 42 rows of scales between 

 the first dorsal and the interorbital space. 



The shape of body and head like that of E. fusca but the 

 snout more elevated; the depth rather variable, 3.9 to 5 times 

 in the length ; the long, broad, low head contained from 3 to 3.2 

 times in the length, its breadth about 0.75 of its own length ; the 

 snout short and bluntly rounded, 4 to 4.8 times in head; the 

 small conspicuous eyes very high up, lateral but almost looking 

 upward, 4.8 to 5.4 times in head, equal to or f of snout, and 

 1.5 to 1.8 times in the broad interorbital space, which is 2.9 to 

 3.4 times In head. The mouth large, oblique, the upper maxillary 

 usually extending to a point below the middle of eye but varying 



