FISHES OP EL, SALVADOB 
251 
of head only feebly granular; occipital process scarcely as broad as long, scarcely 
keeled; an elongate pit on snout and a fontanel groove reaching from posterior part 
of interorbital nearly to occipital process; dorsal fin rather small, its origin about 
equidistant from tip of snout and origin of adipose, the sjiine 1.6 in head; adipose 
fin rather large, its base 3.1 in head ; caudal fin long, deeply forked, both lobes pointed, 
the posterior margin definitely V shaped, the upper lobe the longest, a little longer 
than head ; anal fin moderate, its origin about an eye's diameter in advance of the 
adipose, the length of its base 1.55 in head ; ventral fins rather short, failing to reach 
the origin of anal, inserted about equidistant from base of pectoral spine and middle 
of anal base; pectoral spine short, 1.6 in head. 
Color in alcohol dark brownish above, sides silvery, pale underneath, the 
fins all slightly dusky. 
A single specimen, 360 millimeters long, was i)reserved. The species was not 
distinguished from G. guatemalensis in the field, therefore others may have been 
captured but not preserved. 
The species appears to be related to A. furtJdi, known from Panama. The 
El Salvador specimen, however, has a much longer and more deeply forked caudal 
fin, the lobes being pointed and equal to or longer than the head, and the outer 
margin is definitely V shaped. In A. furthii the lobes of the caudal are not pointed 
and are notably shorter than the head, and the outer margin of the fin is broadly 
V shaped. The eye in the El Salvador fish is larger, the fins are longer, the palatine 
patches of teeth are much smaller and farther apart, and the band of teeth on the 
lower jaw is narrower. 
The specimen in hand was taken in strictly fresh water at San Marcos, where 
the bridge of the International Railroad of Central America crosses the Rio Lempa, 
about 30 kilometers from the sea. The species is named for Frederic W. Taylor, 
director general of agriculture for the Government of El Salvador, under whose 
immediate direction the investigation was made. 
Family III. PIMELODID^ 
Body elongate, compressed posteriorly; head broad; mouth terminal or slightly 
inferior; barbels, 6; nostrils remote from each other, the posterior one without a 
barbel; teeth wanting on palatines; adipose fin present, usually long. 
5. Genus RHAMDIA Bleeker 
Pieronotus Swainson, Nat. Hist. Class. Fish., II, 1839, 309 (type Heterobranchus seitentaculatus Agassiz). 
Rhamdia Bleeker, Verhand. Natuurk. Vereen. Nederl. Indie, IV, 1859, 197 (sp.); Bleeker, Ncderl. Tijdschr. Dierk., I, 1863, 101 
(type Pimelodus quelen Quoy and Gaimard). 
Pimelenotus Gill, Ann. Lye. Nat. Hist., N. Y., VI, 1858, 391 (type Pimelenotus l Usoni Gill). 
Body elongate; jaws with villiform teeth; no teeth on vomer or palatines; 
nostrils remote from each other; barbels, 6; no nasal barbel; occipital process small 
or wanting, never reaching dorsal plate; eye with free orbital margin; dorsal fin 
with 1 slender spine and 5 to 8 branched rays; adipose fin long, adnate to the back. 
A single species of this genus was taken in El Salvador. 
42S85— 20t 2 
