ALESTES. 113 



1. ALESTES DENTEX. 

 (Plate XVIII. fig. 1.) 



Salmo dentex, Linnsens, in Hasselquist, Peise Palsest. p. 395 (1757). 



Salmo dentex, part., Linnseus, Syst. Nat. i. p. 531 (1766). 



Cliaracinus niloticus, GeofFroy, Descr. Egypte, Poiss. p. 50, pi. iv. iig. 2 (1809). 



Myletes hasselquistii, Cuvier, Mem. Mus. iv. 1818, p. 449, pi. xxi. fig. 2. 



Alestes dentex, MiiUer & Troschel, Hor. Ichth. i. p. 13, pi. ii. fig. 6 (1845) ; Heckel, Russegger's 

 Reise Egypt, iii. p. 307, pi. xxi. fig. 2 (1849) ; Giinther, Cat. Fish. v. p. 312 (1864), and 

 Petherick's Trav. ii. p. 242 (1869) ; Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) viii. 1901, p. 488. 



Alestes hasselquistii, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Poiss. xxii. p. 180 (1849). 



Alestes sethente, Cuvier & Valenciennes, t. c. p. 190 ; Giinther, t. c. p, 313 ; Steindachner, Sitzb. 

 Ak. Wien, lxi. i. 1870, p. 541. 



Body strongly compressed, its depth three and three-fifths to four and two-thirds 

 times in the total length ; length of head four and a half to six times. Head once 

 and two-thirds to twice and one-third as long as broad, once and one-fourth to once 

 and a half as long as deep ; snout rounded, not projecting beyond the low 7 er lip, 

 as long as or slightly longer than the eye ; eye lateral, visible from above and from 

 below, its diameter three and a half (young) to four and one-fourth times in the length 

 of the head ; adipose eyelid well developed, but thin and transparent, covering part of 

 the eye in front and behind ; interorbital region very convex, its width twice and a half 

 to three times in the length of the head ; width of the mouth equal to the diameter of 

 the eye ; maxillary not reaching to below the anterior border of the eye ; 14 teeth (jh in 

 the upper jaw, 10 (-) in the lower; lower border of the second suborbital longer than 

 the diameter of the eye in the adult. Gill-rakers rather long and slender, 20 to 26 on 

 the lower part of the anterior arch. Dorsal fin with II 8 rays, beginning just behind 

 the vertical of the base of the ventrals, equally distant from the eye and from the root 

 of the caudal fin, or slightly nearer the latter ; first branched ray longest, as long as or 

 a little longer or a little shorter than the head. Adipose fin small, twice and. a half to 

 three times as far from the rayed dorsal as from the root of the caudal. Anal fin with 

 III 19-23 rays (usually 20-22), anterior longest, one-half to two-thirds the length of 

 the head ; the rays in the anterior half of the fin larger in males than in females, the 

 fin having a more convex border. Pectoral fin as long as or a little shorter than the 

 head, widely separated from the ventral ; latter shorter. Caudal fin deeply forked, 

 the lobes pointed. Caudal peduncle once and a half to once and three-fourths 

 as long as deep. Scales with fine granulations and feeble radiating canals, 44 



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