CLAEIAS. 221 



B. Second dorsal fin more or less distinctly rayed, or with a spine ; mandibular 

 teeth very small or absent ; eye •without free border. 



1. Mandibular barbels branched ; body moderately elongate, naked ; second 



dorsal with articulated ra}'s. 

 Posterior nostril very large 33. Mvchani.t, Joannis, p. 492. 



2. Barbels simple ; body much elongate, with very slender caudal peduncle. 



a. Preemaxillary teeth present; mandibular teeth few or absent; no 



spine to the second dorsal fin. 



Body and tail naked 34=. Doumea, Sauv., p. 496. 



Body and tail with bony scutes 35. Plwacturu, Blgr., p. 498. 



b. Prsemaxillary and mandibular teeth present; body and tail with bony 



scutes. 



Second dorsal without spine 36. Paraphr actum, Blgr., p. 506. 



Second dorsal with a spine 37. Traehyc/lanis, Blgr., p. 507. 



c. No teeth ; body and tail with bony scutes ; second dorsal with a spine. 



Dorsal fin in advance of ventrals 38. Belonoglanis, Blgr., p. 508. 



Dorsal fin above ventrals 39. Andersonia, Blgr., p. 510. 



VI. MalopterurinJ!:. — Xo rayed dorsal fin ; adipose fin present ; anal short ; gill- 

 membranes grown to isthmus . . . 40. Muloptentrus, Lacep., p. 511. 



1. CLARIAS. 



Gronov. Zoophyl. p. 100 (1781) ; Giinth. Cat. Fish. v. p. 248 (1864) ; Bouleng. 



Poiss. Bass. Congo, p. 248 (1901), Fish. Nile, p. 278 (1907), and Proc. Zool. 



Soc. 1907, p. 1063. 

 Macropteronotus, part., Lacep. Hist. Poiss. v. p. 84 (1803). 



Body elongate, with long dorsal and anal fins composed entirely ot 

 soft rays, extending to or nearly to the caudal fin. Pectoral fin with 

 the outer ray spinous; ventral fin with 6. rays. Head much depressed, 

 the upper and lateral parts osseous, forming a casque ; four pairs of 

 barbels — one nasal, one maxillary, two mandibulars. Eye small, with 

 free orbital margin. Jaws with a band of villiform teeth ; a band of 

 villiform or granular teeth on the vomer. Gill-membranes free from 

 the isthmus, deeply notched in the middle. A dendritic, accessory 

 branchial organ attached to the second and fourth branchial arches and 

 received in a cavity behind the gill-cavity proper. Air-bladder small, 

 bilobed, disposed transversely and partially enclosed in a bony sheath 

 formed by the transverse processes of the fourth and fifth vertebras. 



Vertebras 60-78. 9 branchiostegal rays. Males with a long, conical 

 anal papilla. 



South-eastern Asia, Syria, Africa. 



