180 CYPBINIDJE. 



2. DISCOGNATHTJS. 



Heckel, Russegger's Reise, i. pt. ii. p. 1027 (1843) ; Giinther, Cat. Fish. vii. p. 68 (1868). 



Body moderately or feebly compressed, covered with moderately large scales. 

 Lateral line equally distant from the back and from the belly. Mouth inferior, 

 transverse, crescent-shaped, protractile, sharp-edged, with more or less developed lips ; 

 a more or less developed suctorial disk on the chin, usually bordered by the lower 

 labial fold ; one or two barbels on each side. Suborbitals not covering the cheek. 

 Gill-openings restricted to the sides. Dorsal fin with 9 to 11 rays, 7 or 8 of which 

 are branched, originating in advance of the ventrals. Anal fin short, with 7 rays. 

 Pectoral fins horizontal. A scaly process at the base of the ventral fins. Pharyngeal 

 teeth in three series (2 or 3, 3 or 4, 4 or 5 — 5 or 4, 4 or 3, 3 or 2), with hooked, 

 spoon-shaped crowns. 



Aberrant Cyprininse adapted for living in torrents and mountain rivers. The 

 mental disk by which they are enabled to fasten themselves to stones varies greatly 

 in its degree of development, and is so reduced in some specimens of the species 

 described below as D. quadrimaculatus as to be almost indistinguishable. Such 

 specimens might be referred to the genus Crossochilus, Van Hasselt, were it not for 

 the more reduced gill-openings, which do not extend to the lower surface of the head, 

 the isthmus being much broader than in the related genera. 



The scales are smooth, with more or less distinct concentric strise. 16 to 18 rays in 

 the pectoral fins, and 10 (8 branched) in the ventrals. Gill-rakers short and few. 



The skeleton is very similar to that of Labeo, but the praemaxillaries emit short 

 ascending processes, the posterior edge of the mandible is raised into a process at the 

 symphysis, and the clavicles do not form a diaphragm. The vertebrae number 34 to 

 39 in the four skeletons examined, viz. : — 



D.lamta 20 + 14 = 34 



D.blanfordii 22 + 14 = 36 



D. dembeensis 22 + 17 = 39 



D. quadrimaculatus 22 + 17 = 39 



Heckel * has described the pharyngeal teeth as " Dentes aggregati (Prlasterzahne)," 

 same as in Labeo, but I find them, in the several specimens examined, to stand well 

 apart from each other, and to be undistinguishable from the " Denies cochleariformes 

 (Loffelzahne) " of Barbus. The intestinal canal is very long and forms numerous 

 convolutions ; it measures six to nine times the length of the fish. 



* T. c. p. 1010. 



