MALOPTEBUKUS. 395 



1. MALOPTERURUS ELECTRICUS. 

 (Plates LXXVIL & LXXVIII.) 



Raja torpedo, Forskal, Descr. Anim. p. 15 (1775). 



Le Trembleur, Broussonet, Mem. Ac. Sci. 1782, p. 692, pi. xvii. (1785). 



Silurus electricus, G-melin, Syst. Nat. i. p. 1351 (1789). 



Malapterurus electricus, Lacepede, Hist. Poiss. v. p. 91 (1803) ; I. Geoffroy, Descr. Egypte, Poiss. 



p. 291, pi. xii. (1827) ; Joannis, Mag. Zool. 1835, iv. pi. i. ; Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. 



Poiss. xv. p. 518, pi. cccclv. (1840) ; Giinther, Cat. Fish. v. p. 219 (1864) ; Peters, Mon. 



Berl. Ac. 1868, p. 121, and Peise n. Mossamb. iv. p. 41 (1868) ; Giinther, Petherick's Trav. 



ii. p. 240 (1869) ; G. Fritsch, Elektr. Fische, i. (1887) ; Ballowitz, Elekt. Org. Afr. 



Zitterwels. (1899) ; Boulenger, Poiss. Bass. Congo, p. 338, pi. xvi. fig. 2 (1901). 

 Rahad, Rifaud, Voy. Egypte, pi. cxcii. (1835). 

 Malapterurus beninensis, And. Murray, Edinb. New Philos. Journ. (2) ii. 1855, p. 49, pi. ii.; 



Giinther, Cat. Fish. v. p. 220 ; Lonnberg, Ofv. Yet.-Ak. Forh. Stockh. 1895, p. 187. 

 Malapterurus affinis, Giinther, 1. c. 

 Malapterurus electricus, var ogoensis, Sauvage, Bull. Soc. Philom. (7) iii. 1878, p. 99, and N. Arch. 



Mus. (2) iii. 1880, p. 45, pi. i. fig. 3. 



Depth of body four to five and a half times in the total length, length of head four 

 to five times; back flattened, sometimes feebly grooved along the spine. Head 

 as long as broad or a little longer than broad ; snout rounded, about half the length 

 of the head ; lower jaw sometimes slightly projecting ; eye very small, lateral, its 

 diameter six (young) to fifteen times in the length of the head; interocular region 

 half (young) to three-fourths the length of the head; maxillary barbel one-third 

 to four-fifths the length of the head; outer mandibular barbel longer, often reaching 

 the root of the pectoral fin or a little beyond. Adipose dorsal fin low, three to five 

 times as long as deep, narrowly separated from the caudal fin. Anal fin with 9 to 

 13 rays, 6 to 10 of which are branched. Pectoral fin rounded, half to three-fifths 

 the length of the head, as long as or a little longer than the ventral fin, which is 

 inserted midway between the eye or the gill-opening and the root of the caudal fin, 

 a little nearer the latter. Caudal fin rounded. 



Grey, brown, or bluish above, white beneath, usually dotted, spotted, or blotched 

 with black, the Nile specimens usually largely blotched with black ; caudal fin darker 

 behind, more or less broadly bordered with orange or red ; the anal also bordered with 

 orange or red; pectoral and ventral fins yellowish, reddish, or bright red. The young 

 have a light ring round the caudal peduncle, a black bar at the base of the caudal fin 

 and a crescentic black band on the posterior half of the fin. 



The largest specimen from the Nile examined by me measures 470 millimetres; 



3e2 



