AN ABAS. 44 L 



ANABANTID^E. 



Mouth protractile, the maxillaries excluded from the oral border. Lower pharyngeal 

 bones large, united, with persistent suture. Body covered with ctenoid scales. Ribs 

 attached to the parapophyses ; epipleurals inserted on the ribs. Pectoral fin low 

 down ; ventral fin near the pectoral, with one spine and five soft rays ; pelvic bones 

 connected with the clavicular symphysis by ligament. Dorsal and anal fins long, with 

 numerous spines. Air-bladder present, much elongate, bifid behind and prolonged 

 into the caudal region. 



Close allies of the preceding family, and likewise with a superbranchial cavity, which 

 is still more developed and provided with thin bony laminse which are more or less 

 folded and covered with a mucous membrane *. These fishes can live a long time out 

 of water, and the name Anabas scandens, by which the common Indian species is 

 known, recalls the fact that its first observers in India ascribed to it the habit of 

 climbing up low trees by means of the spines with which its gill-covers and ventral 

 fins are armed. No observations have been made on the habits of the African species. 



Carnivorous freshwater fishes forming a single genus, represented in South-eastern 

 Asia and Africa. 



1. ANABAS. 



Cuvier, Begne Anim. ii. p. 339 (1817) ; Giinther, Cat. Fish. hi. p. 374 (1862) ; Boulenger, Poiss. 



Bass. Congo, p. 371 (1901). 

 Spirobranchus, Cuvier & Valenciennes, Hist. Poiss. vii. p. 392 (1831) ; Giinther, t. c. p. 373. 

 Ctenopoma, Peters, Mon. Berl. Ac. 1844, p. 34 ; Giinther, t. c. p. 373 ; Peters, Beise n. Mossamb. 



iv. p. 14 (1868). 

 Sandelia, Castelnau, Cat. Poiss. Afr. Austr. p. 36 (1861). 



Body short or moderately elongate, more or less compressed, covered with large, 

 hard, strongly ctenoid scales ; lateral line interrupted. Plead convex, covered with 

 scales ; mouth moderately large, with small conical teeth ; teeth on the vomer and on 



* Cf. Peters, Arch. f. Anat. u. Physiol. 1853, p. 427, pi. xiii. ; Zograff, Biol. Centralbl. v. 1886, p. 679, and 

 Q. J. Microsc. Sci. xxviii. 1888, p. 501 ; Grigorin, Zool. Anz. 1900, p. 161. 



3L 



