CATALOGUE 



OF 



AFRICAN FRESH-WATER FISHES. 



Suborder III. S Y M 13 R A N C H 1 1. 



Eel-shaped Fishes without paired fins, with the pectoral arch free or 

 suspended from the skull, and with the anterior vertebrae distinct, with- 

 out AVeberian ossicles. Prpe maxillary and maxillary well developed. 

 Gill-openings confluent into a single ventral slit. Air-bladder absent. 



Fam. 1. SYMBRANCHID.^. 



Maxillary behind the praemaxillary, forming but a small part of the 

 oral border ; parietal bones forming a long sagittal suture. Post- 

 temporal well developed, forked, attached to the skull. Prsecaudal 

 vertebrae with very strong parapophyses, to which short slender ribs are 

 attached. Skin naked. Vertical fins rudimentary. 



Fresh and brackish waters of the Tropics. A single representative in 

 Africa. 



1. SYMBRANCHUS. 



Bloch, Ansl. Fisclie, ix. p. 86 (1795) ; Giintli. Cat. Fish. viii. p. 15 (1870). 

 Unih'ancliapertura^ Lacep. Hist. Poiss. v. p. 656 (1803). 

 OpJnsternon, McCIell. Calc. Journ. N. H. v. 1845, p. 196. 

 Tetralranclms, Bleek. Nat. Tijdschr. Nederl. Ind. ii. 1851, p. i}2. 



Four branchial arches with well-developed gills. Gill-membrane free 

 from the isthmus. Teeth on the palate forming a band. Vertebra? 

 over 100. 



South-Eastern Asia, Tropical America, Australia, and Tasmania. 

 One species in West Africa. 



VOL. llf. I' 



