154 Memoirs of the Indian Museum. [Vol. II, 



Suborder Percesoces. 



Family CHIASMODONTID^. 



Genus Kali, nov 



A genus allied to Chiasmodus (Johnson), differing from it in the reduction of the 

 operculum, in the character of the teeth, the presence of a double row of pores in the 

 lateral line, and in possessing pyloric caeca. 



The body is scaleless and covered with thin, loose, black skin. There are two 

 separate dorsal fins, the anterior slightly shorter than the posterior which is equal 

 and opposite to the anal. The ventrals are thoracic but slightly behind the level of the 

 pectorals. The mouth is very wide. The opercular bones are much reduced so that 

 the angle of the lower jaw forms the posterior limit of the head. The teeth are few 

 and very large, with arrow-headed points ; they are arranged in two series, those of 

 the inner series being much the larger. The vomer is toothless ; the palatine bears a 

 few large teeth. Upper pharyngeal teeth are present. All the teeth are depressible 

 inwards. The gill-aperture is very wide. There are four long slender gills with very 

 short filaments. There are no pseudobranchiae. The stomach is caecal and very large. 

 There are two pyloric caeca. Air-bladder present. 



Kali indica, sp. nov. 



Illustv. Zool. " Iituestigator ," Fishes, plate xliv, fig. 5 (190g). 



B. 6, D. xiii 22, A. 23, P. 12, V. i 15. 



The head is a quarter of the total length without the caudal. The greatest depth, 

 which is just in front of the attachment of the pectorals, is a fifth of the total. The 

 length of the snout is equal to the interorbital breadth and half as long again as the 

 diameter of the eye, which is a fifth of the length of the head. The mouth is very 

 large and extends far behind the eye. The upper and lower jaws meet only at their 

 articulations and in front ; they curve upwards and downwards in the middle of their 

 length. Because of this curve the teeth can stand erect. When the mouth is closed, 

 the upper and lower jaws are separated in the middle of their length by a distance 

 greater than the diameter of the eye. There is a deep bony depression on the top of 

 the head limited by two ridges which converge and meet in the middle of the upper 

 surface of the snout. On either side of these ridges are two deep depressions in the 

 bone (the loose skin has become detached from the head in the single specimen). The 

 openings of the gill-cavities are very large. The gill-coverings are completed below 

 by a thin membrane which is so voluminous that in the dead specimen it is not ren- 

 dered tense until the angles of the jaw have been separated laterally from one another 

 by a distance equal to the length of the head. The gill-arches are very long and slen- 

 der and are freely exposed. Their filaments axe short, being equal to half the dia- 

 meter of the eye. The teeth are alike in both jaws ; they consist of an outer series 

 of ten teeth increasing in size from behind forward — the largest being slightly less in 



