No. 543] SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



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for males by one millimeter is 13.5 mm., the maximum is 15 mm., 

 and the minimum is under 12 mm. This species is said to be a 

 food fish of considerable importance as it is seined by the natives 

 in large quantities, dried in cakes or mixed with spices, and is 

 eagerly sought for. The great majority of the six hundred 

 known species of Gobiida? are less than 75 mm. in length. 

 Philypnus dormitor (Lacepede) of Central America and the 

 "West Indies, the largest of the family, reaches a length of 

 600 mm. 



The Etheostomina* or darters contain some of the smallest 

 spiny-rayed fishes. Microperca punctulata Putnam (25-38 mm.) 

 of the Central States is next to Elassoma evergladei Jordan 

 (20-33 mm.) a minute percoidean of our southeastern swamps, 

 the smallest American spiny-rayed fish and a number of other 

 darters are but slightly larger. Heterandria formosa Agassiz, 

 a diminutive viviparous Poeciliid, occurring in swamps and 

 ditches from South Carolina to Florida, was for a long while 

 considered the least of American vertebrates. This species has 

 ah average length of 19 mm. for males and 25 mm. for females. 

 Acanthophacelus bifurcus of the ponds and creeks of British 

 Guiana, recently described by Eigenmann, 7 is still smaller; the 

 average for both sexes is 21.5 mm. and the largest of 74 speci- 

 mens is 29 mm. long. A number of pregnant females are but 

 20 mm. in total length and one of these, preserved in alcohol, in 

 the Indiana University collections weighs but .076 gram. The 

 weight of living specimens is probably somewhat greater. The 

 exact measurements of this specimen (I. U. No. 11,765) are as 

 follows : total length 20 mm., length to base of caudal 16 mm., 

 depth 5 mm. and breadth or thickness 3 mm. The smallest male 

 specimen here, one in full nuptial coloration, measures 19 mm. 

 over all. In all probability, the smallest new world vertebrate is 

 Heterandria minor Garman, 8 from Villa Bella, Brazil. The 

 average total length of this species is 18 mm. for males and 20.5 

 mm. for females. Females of but 19 mm. "contain fully devel- 

 oped embryos." With this may be contrasted the bulk ot 

 Arapaima gigas (Cuvier) of neighboring streams of Brazil and 

 Guiana, said to reach a length of fifteen feet and to be the largest 

 strictly fresh-water fish known. 



