IW THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
II 
PLOTOSIDJE. 
ANYPEEISTB f.TS gen. nov. 
Lips thin. Teeth small, crowded, recurved, none of them with 
rounded tips, the outer series in both jaws enlarged and conical. 
Barbels long. Eyes small. Dorsal fin originating a little behind the 
gill-opening, with i 4< rays. Caudal fin obliquely truncated. Pectoral 
and ventral fins each with 9 soft rays. (a privative ; inrep, above ; 
lo-TLov, a sail: in allusion to the absence of the second dorsal fin.) 
Fresh water cat-fishes of small size from southern New Guinea. 
One, perhaps two, species. Type Anyperistias perugice Ogilby = 
JEumeda elongata Perugia (not Castelnau). 
The genus, to which I have been obliged to give the new name 
proposed above, is founded on specimens of less than five inches in 
total length and in all probability immature. 
The form of the inner teeth differs so materially from that which 
is found in the Eumed:i of Castelnau (described also from an im- 
mature fish), that there can be no question as to the generic dis- 
tinctness of the two forms. Castelnau's description of the dentition 
of his Eumeda is as follows : — " Teeth on both jaws numerous, 
crowded, and tubercular* with a line of sharp conical ones in 
front." Overlooking his neglect in omitting to mention the vome- 
rine teeth this agrees fairly Avell with the dental characters of a 
young Neosilurus, but in no degree resembles the recurved* inner 
teeth attributed to his species by Perugia, and absolutely unique 
among the plotosids. IE it were not for this character I would un- 
hesitatingly assign Perugia's fish, along with Castelnau's to the genus 
Neosilurus, as the remaining diagnostic characters enumerated above, 
and on which I have to rely, are either of trivial value, or, the genera 
being admitted identical, of specific importance only ; or may perhaps 
be due to the immaturity of the specimens available for examination. 
Of these characters the most important is the allegedly small num- 
ber of ventral rays, which, if given correctly, is without parallel in 
the family ; the value of this character is, however, somewhat dis- 
counted by the difficulty, if not impossibility, of accurately comput- 
ing the number of the rays in these fins without resorting to dissection. 
* The italics are mine. 
