A CONTRIBUTION TO THE ICHTHYOLOGY j 77 



Mela^notaenia, nigrans Richards. 



Localities: Port Darwin, June 



1894. (Fresh-water). Three specimens, 115, 76 and 



75 mm. 

 Daly River, July 



1894 Thirteenspecimens, 63 — 27mm. 



Southern Alligator 



River, Juni 14, 1895. One specimen, 85 mm. 

 Mc Kinley River 



Aug. 1895 .... Three specimens 86, 76 and 

 57 mm. 



In a recent paper, Mr. Regan (Trans. Zool. Soc. London, 1914, 

 vol. XX, part. 6) has expressed as his opinion, arrived at from 

 the study of "a large series of specimens up to 100 mm. in 

 total length, from New Guinea, Northern, Western, Central, and 

 Eastern Austraha", that all the supposed Melanotaeniine species, 

 which have been described from Australia, as well as 3 species 

 from New Guinea and one from the Aru Islands belong to "a 

 single widely distributed and variable species, Melanotaenia 

 nigrans Richards." This point of view is favored also by the 

 Australian ichthyologist MacCulloch, according to Jordan 

 (Stud. Ichth., Stanford Univ. Puhl., 1919, p. 24). 



It is rather impossible to have any definite opinion about 

 this question without having had the opportunity of examining 

 a large material from various parts of the Australian continent. 

 It is to be regretted that Mr. Regan does not confirm his state- 

 ments, that the differences upon which previous writers have 

 based their descriptions of the supposed Australian species of 

 the genus only are referable to individual variations, by any 

 series of measurements and notes on the coloring of the speci- 

 mens from various localities, which he has examined. 



In the present collection, the genus Melanotaenia is repre- 

 sented by 20 specimens from Arnhem Land in North-Australia. 



Nyt Mag. f. Naturv. LX. 1922. 12 



