1849.] Catalogue of Malayan Fishes. 1247 



Plotosus lineatus, Temm. et Schl. Fauna Jap. Pise. 228, PL CIV. 



Fig. 3. 



Plotosus lineatus, Bleeker : Verh, Bat. Gen. XXI. 4, 17, 57. 



Similang karong of the Malays. 



Young. Head above and back blackish olive, lighter or copper 

 coloured on the sides of the head and body ; two white bands along 

 the body : one from the muzzle above the eye along the back, a second, 

 broader, from the maxillary cirrus, and in some a third from the ven- 

 trals ; lips, throat and abdomen white ; fins pale brownish olive or 

 lake, dotted and edged with black ; upper part of first dorsal with a 

 black spot ; anal papilla and ramified appendage crimson ; nasal and 

 maxillary cirri blackish ; mandibular pairs white. Iris golden dotted 

 with black. 



Adult. The lateral white bands indistinct. 



IstD 1/4,— 2d D, C and A 172 or 173, V 13 or 14, P 1/11, 



Br. XI or XII.— Cirri — 



4 

 Habit. — Sea and estuaries of Malayan Peninsula and Islands. 



Isle of France, Society- and Friendly Islands, Japan, Philip- 

 pines, China Seas, Amboyna, Celebes, Java, Seychelles, 

 Red Sea, Malabar, Ceylon, Coromandel, Western Aus- 

 tralia. 

 Total length : 10 inch. 



The length of the head is 5| in the total, its depth at occiput \ of 

 the length. The horizontal diameter of the eye is \ of the length of 

 the head ; the distance across the forehead 2 such diameters. The 

 greatest vertical diameter of the body, in front of the first dorsal, is \ of 

 the total length. The maxillary and external mandibular cirri are 

 equal, both pairs less than \ of the length of the head. The nasal and 

 internal mandibular pairs are shorter. This species is very numerous 

 at all seasons. In the stomach of those dissected was found Modiola 

 faba, Benson, a very small bivalve inhabiting the Malayan estuaries. 



Plotosus albilabris, Cuv. and Val. 



Plotosus albilabris, Cuv. and Val. XV. 427. 



Plotosus albilabris, Bleeker: Verh. Bat. Gen. XXI. 4. 



Similang of the Malays. 



7 x 



