ALESTES. 



121 



3. ALESTES SADLERL 

 Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) xvii. 1906, p. 435. 



Body strongly compressed, its depth three and one-third to three and a half times in 

 the total length, length of head four times. Head twice as long as broad, slightly 

 longer than deep ; snout rounded, not projecting beyond the lower lip, a little shorter 

 than the eye ; eye lateral, visible from above and from below, its diameter three times 

 in the length of the head ; adipose eyelid very short ; interorbital region convex, its 

 width twice and a half in the length of the head ; width of mouth equal to the 



Q Q 



diameter of the eye; 16 teeth (g) in the upper jaw, 10 (^) in the lower; lower border 

 of the second suborbital as long as the eye. Gill-rakers long and slender, 18 on lower 

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



Fig. 19. 





^ 



Alestes sadleri 



ventrals, equally distant from the occiput and from the root of the caudal fin ; first 

 branched ray longest, as long as the head. Adipose fin small, about twice and a half 

 as far from the rayed dorsal as from the root of the caudal. Anal fin with III 16-17 

 rays, its base about two-thirds the length of the head ; anterior rays longest, one-half 

 length of head. Pectoral fin as long as the head, not reaching the ventral; latter 

 shorter. Caudal fin deeply forked, the lobes obtusely pointed. Caudal peduncle 

 barely once and a half as long as deep. Scales with radiating and arborescent or 

 anastomosing canals, 33 gf, 2 between the lateral line and the root of the ventral fin. 



Steel-blue above, silvery white below; fins orange-red; a black (in life brilliant 

 orange) blotch on the caudal peduncle, extending on the middle rays of the caudal fin. 



