IgQ The Philippine Journal of Science 1923 



those on forward end of vomer largest, with their points more 

 or less curved backward. 



A small eel with pointed snout and rounded body, only poste- 

 rior portion of tail being laterally compressed; origin of dorsal 

 over middle or posterior third of pectoral; vertical fins low, 

 less than half the depth of body, ending a little more than the 

 diameter of eye from tip of tail. 



Color in alcohol dark purplish brown, paler on underside of 

 head and forward half of belly; everywhere thickly sprinkled 

 with minute dark red-brown dots, these excessively abundant 

 on dorsal surface; fins speckled like body. 



A specimen from Malabon, Bureau of Science collection No. 

 835, has the following dimensions: Length, 305 millimeters; 

 head, 31 ; trunk, 86 ; tail, 188 ; eye, 2.5 ; snout, 5 ; gape, 8 ; pec- 

 toral, 12. 



This eel has been previously recorded only from Celebes, Am- 

 boina, and Nias Islands; it attains a length of 486 millimeters. 



Genus LAMN0ST0MA Kaup 

 Lamnostoma Kaup, Uebersicht der Aale, Arch. Naturg. 22 (1856) 49; 

 Cat. Apod. Fishes Brit. Mus. (1856) 23. 



Slender, cylindrical, small eels, with very sharp-pointed and 

 much-projecting snout so that the mouth is far back, as in 

 certain sharks ; the anterior nostrils are on the flat undersurf ace 

 of snout, near its tip, and have a broad, ear-shaped margin, 

 broadest posteriorly and with a small cutaneous tag or flap on 

 middle of inner edge. The gill openings are ventral, close toge- 

 ther, small oblique slits curving outward posteriorly, and with 

 an outer and much longer fold of the gill opening duplicating 

 them and extending much farther anteriorly. Dorsal and anal 

 very low, the former beginning a short distance back of gill 

 openings; no pectorals. Anus a little before or behind the 

 middle of length. Teeth uniserial. 



A small genus of the southern and southeastern Asiatic 

 waters. Closely related to Sphagebranchus, from which it dif- 

 fers in having fins, and in having nostrils of dissimilar character, 

 lamnostoma orientalis (McClelland). Plate 6, fig. 1. 



Dalopkis orientalis McClelland, Calcutta Journ. Nat. Hist. 5 (1845) 



