May,iso3.1 FISHES OF THE DEATH VALLEY EXPEDITION. 23C 



rays. Four young specimens from the same locality and two from Med- 

 bury Springs, Amargosa Desert, California, have the ventrals wholly 

 aborted, and show on dissection no trace of the basals. These occur 

 in the same lots with other specimens having normal ventrals, and are 

 otherwise indistinguishable from them. No full-grown adults were 

 found without ventrals, the largest being a half-grown specimen about 

 one inch long with the characteristic coloration of the males already 

 developed. Ten young specimens from the 'Devil's Hole,' Ash Mead- 

 ows, are all without ventrals, and further collections from this locality 

 would be of interest. 



In the intestines were found fragments of insects, and in one series 

 of specimens from Saratoga Springs at the south end of Death Valley, 

 California, very numerous shells of a small Gasteropod mollusk. 



Specimens are in the collection from the following localities : Medbury 

 Spring (6 miles north of the Borax Works), Amargosa Desert, Califor- 

 nia ; Ash Meadows, Amargosa Desert, Nevada; Saratoga Springs, 

 Death Valley, California; Amargosa Creek, California. 



Cyprinodon macularius baileyi. subsp. nov. 



Type locality. — Paliranagat Valley, Nevada, collected by C. Hart Merriam and 

 Vernon Bailey, May 25, 1891. 



Eleven immature specimens from Pahranagat Valley, Nevada, show 

 no trace of ventral fins. They are olivaceous above, bright silvery on 

 the lower half of sides and below, and have two lengthwise series of 

 coarse black spots, one along middle line of body, the other on a level 

 with the lower edge of caudal peduncle. The anal fin is larger than 

 in typical macularius, the eleven specimens having each 13 rays instead 

 of 10 or 11, as constantly in the latter. The material is insufficient to 

 fully decide the status of this form. Except in the characters noted it 

 agrees in proportions and formulae with macularius. 



empetrichthys gen. nov. (Plate V.) 



(Cyprinodontidse) . 



Intestines short, 1£ times length of body. Teeth conic, fixed, in each 

 jaw arranged in a band consisting of two or three rows, the outer series 

 somewhat enlarged. Ventrals absent. Branchiostegals five. Both 

 upjjer and lower pharyngeals greatly enlarged and bearing molar teeth, 

 tubercular in shape. The lower pharyngeals are firmly attached to the 

 ceratobrauchials of the fourth arch, while the massive epibranchials of 

 the same arch serve to connect them firmly at the sides with the pharyn- 

 gobranchials above. The fourth branchial arch bears normal gills. 

 Its median portion is produced anteriorly, forming a triangular exten- 

 sion of the lower pharyngeals in the middle line. On the oral surface 

 this is indistinguishable from the pharyngeals proper, and like them 

 bears molar teeth. 



Scales normal, large, regularly imbricated, nowhere tubercular or 

 ridged. 



