CLAEIAS. 285 



3. CLARIAS KOBECCHIL 

 (Plate LI. fig. 1.) 



Clarias gariepinus, part., Giinther k Playfair, Fish. Zanzib. p. 113 (1866). 



Clarias mossambicus (non Peters), Fischer, Jahrb. Hamb. Wiss. Anst. i. 1884, p. 28 ; Vinciguerra, 



Ann. Mus. Geneva, (2) xv. 1895, p. 31, fig., and xvii. 1896, p. 25; Pellegrin, Mem. Soc. Zool. 



France, xvii. 1905, p. 176. 

 Clarias robecchii, Vinciguerra, Ann. Mus. Genova, (2) xiii. 1893, p. 450, and xv. 1895, p. 30, fig. ; 



Boulenger, Poiss. Bass. Congo, p. 253 (1901). 

 Clarias lazera (non Cuvier & Valenciennes), Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1894, p. 89 ; Boulenger, 



Proc. Zool. Soc. 1901, ii. p. 161. 

 Clarias smithii, Giinther, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1896, p. 219, fig* 

 Clarias microphthalmia, Pfeffer, Tkierw. O.-Afr., Fische, p. 28 (1896); Hilgendorf, Zool. Jahrb., 



Syst. xxii. 1905, p. 410. 

 Clarias guntkeri, P fetter, 1. c. 



Depth of body six to eight times in the total length, length of head three to three 

 and two-thirds times. Head once and a half to once and two-thirds as long as broad, 

 its upper surface coarsely granulate in the adult ; occipital process angular ; frontal 

 fontanelle sole-shaped or knife-shaped, twice and a half to four times as long as broad, 

 three and a half to five and a half times in the length of the head ; occipital fontanelle 

 small, in advance of the occipital process; eye twice and a half (young) to four times 

 in the length of the snout, four (young) to eight times in the interorbital width ; width 

 of the mouth equal to or a little less than the interorbital width ; band of praemaxillary 

 teeth four (young) to eight times as long as broad ; vomerine teeth granular, forming 

 a crescentic band with or without a short posterior median process, this band once to 

 once and a half the width of the prsemaxillary band. Nasal barbel one-fifth to two- 

 fifths the length of the head (one-half to two-thirds in the very young) ; maxillary 

 barbel two-thirds to once the length of the head (a little longer in the very young), not 

 extending beyond the middle of the pectoral fin; outer mandibular barbel once and 

 one-fourth to once and three-fifths as long as inner, which measures one-half to 

 three-fourths the length of the head. Gill-rakers long and closely set, 25 (very young) 

 to 110 on anterior arch f. Clavicles hidden under the skin. Dorsal fin with 62 to 

 78 rays, its distance from the occipital process one-seventh to one-fourth the length of 



* G-imther describes and figures the band of vomerine teeth as nearly twice as broad as the band of 

 prgemaxillary teeth ; in reality, the latter measures at its widest point 6 millim., the former, also at its 

 widest point, 9 millim. 



f As has been observed in the Allis Shad (Olupea alosa), the gill-rakers increase in number with age. 

 They number, on the anterior arch, about 40 in specimens 200 millim. long, 50 in specimens 300 millim., 

 70 to 110 in adults of 500 to 600 millim. Specimens of the latter size have only 2b to 27 gill-rakers in 

 C. anguillaris, 100 to 120 in 0. lazera, whilst a C. lazera of over 1 metre in length has as many as 135. 



