TRIDENTIGER 283 



Here described from fifteen specimens, 40 to 81 millimeters 

 long, the larger specimens in spawning condition. They were 

 collected at Amoy, China, by Light, late in the summer of 1922. 



Rendahl's separation of the Japanese specimens as a distinct 

 species will not stand. The depth of the caudal peduncle and 

 the number of crossbars on the first dorsal, the characters upon 

 which he made the separation, are worthless for this purpose, 

 as my specimens show. 



Steindachner showed long ago that this species is variable 

 in color. 



This peculiar-looking goby occurs along the coast of China and 

 in Tokyo Bay, Japan, and Steindachner's specimen came from 

 "Celebes or from the Philippines." I have no doubt that it does 

 occur here. 



Genus 61. TRIDENTIGER Gill 



Tridentiger GILL, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist. New York (1858) 16. 



The robust body little compressed, subcylindrical, covered with 

 ctenoid scales of moderate size ; the head broad, naked, more or 

 less flattened above, with blunt snout, the mouth moderately 

 oblique, the lower jaw somewhat prominent, the cheeks usually 

 bulging; the teeth rather large, in two rows in each jaw, those 

 of outer row tricuspid, the inner row smaller, simple, pointed ; 

 the tongue rounded at tip; the eyes of medium size, rather far 

 apart; there are no barbels on head, and no free silky rays on 

 pectoral ; the dorsals low, the caudal rounded, shorter than head ; 

 the gill openings narrow, the isthmus broad; branchiostegals 4. 

 Dorsal VI, 1-10 to 12 ; anal I, 9 or 10 ; there are 54 to 58 scales 

 in a longitudinal series and 16 to 22 in a transverse series. 



Species few, on the coasts of Siberia, Japan, and China, south 

 to Hongkong, and in all probability occurring in the northern 

 Philippines. 



Key to the species of Tridentiger occurring in the China Sea. 



a 1 . Body with two conspicuous longitudinal blackish bands; longitudinal 

 scales 54 to 56; transverse scales 16 to 20 T. bifasciatus. 



a*. Color uniform brown; longitudinal scales 55 to 58; transverse scales 16 

 to 22 T. trigonocephalus. 



143. TRIDENTIGER BIFASCIATUS Steindachner 



Tridentiger bifasciatus STEINDACHNER, Sltzungsber. Akad. Wiss. Wien 



83 1 (1881) 190, pi. 7, figs. 2 and 2a; JORDAN and SNYDER, Proc. 



U. S. Nat. Mus. 24 (1901) 117, fig. 25; SfiALE, Philip. Journ. Sci. 



D 9 (1914) 77; RENDAHL, Arkiv Zoologi 16 (1924) 27, fig. 1. 

 Tridentiger ioturus JORDAN and SNYDER, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus. 23 



(1900) 373. 



