Haasr.— On» Cheimarrichthys fosteri. 103 
Авт. XX.— On Cheimarrichthys fosteri, a New Genus belonging to the 
New Zealand Freshwater Fishes. By Jurrus Haast, PhD; TRA 
Director of the Canterbury Museum. 
Plate XVIII. 
[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 4th December, 1873.] 
Amongst a collection of fishes, consisting principally of specimens of Galaxias 
brevipinnis and Retropinna richardsonii, obtained by Mrs. J. C. Foster, of 
Sumner, during the month of March, in the Otira, where that alpine torrent 
leaves its picturesque gorge, I observed a few specimens, four to five inches 
long, which were unknown to me, and on examination were found to be new 
to science. They proved to belong to a genus hitherto undescribed, forming 
part of the Trachinina, the second group of the Trachide, of which, as far as 
І am aware, only another genus (Aphrites) is a freshwater fish inhabiting the 
rivers of South America and Tasmania, but from which the Species under 
consideration differs materially. 
Genus Cheimarrichthys. 
Body stout ; head spatuliform, broad and depressed, scaleless ; opening of 
mouth slightly oblique, and with the upper jaw longer ; eyes lateral, somewhat 
directed upwards ; scales small ctenoid ; villiform teeth in both jaws, and on 
the vomer. 
Two separate dorsals, the first consisting of three small but strong and 
sharp spines, of which the third is the largest ; each with a small posterior 
membrane, so as to prevent the spine from rising to the vertical. Ventrals 
jugular ; pectoral rays branched. Opening of gills large. 
Opereulum and preoperculum entire; six branchiostegals; lateral line 
continuous, 
: CHEIMARRICHTHYS FOSTERI, 
Юс TOG Veh б; PIT A; IA. 
‘The length of the head is one fifth of the total length (without caudal fin), 
whieh is equal to the greatest height of the body. 
Eyes near the upper side of the head ; diameter of eye one fourth of the 
head ; interorbital space, convex, scarcely more than the diameter of the eye. 
Of the soft but strong dorsal spines, the second is the longest, after which they 
gradually diminish; of the anal, the spines rise to the third, wbich is the 
longest, both fins being similarly developed. The anal fin begins below the 
fifth ray of the dorsal, and extends a little further than the former. 
Scales behind the head to the beginning of the soft dorsal, and above the 
lateral line, very small. 
Colour of head dark olive green, cheeks paler ; upper portion of body above 
