SYNODONTIS. 



369 



Fig. 29. 



Synodontis Jiumeratus, C. & Y. : tracing of the original sketch, reduced to one-half. (After Yaillant.) 



7. SYNODONTIS EUPTERUS. 



(Plate LX.VIIL) 



Boulenger, Ann. & Mag. N. H. (7) viii. 1901, p. 11. 



Body rather strongly compressed, its depth three times in the total length, the 

 length of the head three and a half to four times. Head a little longer and deeper 

 than broad, rugose, granulate on the vertex and occiput and in front of the eyes ; 

 frontal fontanelle rather narrow; snout rounded, as long as the postocular part of the 

 head ; eye superolateral, its diameter three and two-thirds to four times in the length 

 of the head, once and a half to once and two-thirds in the width of the interorbital 

 region, which is slightly convex; occiput simply convex. Lips rather feebly 

 developed ; prsemaxillary teeth forming a short and broad band ; movable mandibular 

 teeth barely one-fourth the length of the eye, 45 to 50 in number. Maxillary barbel 

 with a rather narow but very distinct marginal membrane at the base, once and 

 a half to once and two-thirds as long as the head, reaching the anterior third or the 

 middle of the pectoral spine ; outer mandibular barbel inserted a little further back 

 than and about twice as long as the inner, the former with long slender branches, the 

 latter with tubercular ramifications. Occipito-nuchal shield rough like the occiput, 

 obtusely tectiform, with obtuse posterior processes. Humeral process flat, granulate, 

 much longer than broad, obtuse-pointed, extending as far back as the occipito-nuchal 

 process, or not quite so far. Skin smooth, without villosities. Dorsal fin with I 7 

 rays*, the spine strong, feebly curved, longer than the head, smooth in front, very 

 feebly serrated behind, the soft terminal part, as well as the extremity of the anterior 



* The number of nine branched rays in the type specimen is no doubt due to an anomalous splitting 

 of the last two rays. 



3b 



