NOTES ON FIVE FOOD-FISHES OF LAKE BUHI, LUZON, PHILIPPINE 
ISLANDS. 
By HUGH M. SMITH. 
As a meager contribution to the ichthyology of the Philippine Islands, the fol- 
lowing notes on a few specimens of fishes recently sent to the United States Commission 
of Fish and Fisheries are offered. The fish were collected in Lake Buhi, province of 
Camarines Sur, Luzon, in July, 1901, by Dr. F. W. Richardson, contract surgeon, 
U. S. Army, and forwarded through the Surgeon-General’s Office. Dr. George A. 
Zeller, acting assistant surgeon, U. S. Army, had previously sent from Lake Buhi 
specimens of dried fish-cakes made by the natives. 
Lake Buhi is described as a beautiful mountain lake, 3 miles wide and 6 miles 
long, and 500 to 1,000 feet above the sea. It is reputed to be very deep, and is said 
to have been formed by a volcanic upheaval before the Spanish occupation, when one 
side of Mount Iriga was blown out, and hills of lava were scattered for miles to the 
southeast of the mountain. 
All of the species hereafter referred to are used for food. The size of some of 
them indicates that nothing is too small or insignificant for the Filipinos to eat. In 
Lake Buhi very few fish are caught with hook and line, the native appliances being 
a fine-meshed net used as a seine and a trap made of bamboo. 
Mistichthys luzonensis II. M. Smith. “ Smarapan.” 
In an article {Science, January 3, 1902) entitled “The Smallest Known Vertebrate,” the writer 
gave a preliminary notice and brief description of this new genus and species of goby from Lake Buhi. 
The genus Mistichthys {/ isidro s, the smallest; lyObs, fish) may be diagnosed as follows: 
Body elongate, compressed. Head rather large. Dorsal fins widely separated, the anterior very 
low, containing 3 weak spines joined by a membrane, the posterior high, with 8 or 9 branched rays; 
anal fin similar to soft dorsal; pectorals long and rounded; ventrals i, 5, coalescent, not adnate to 
abdomen; caudal well developed, bluntly pointed. A single series of rather long, curved conical teeth 
in each jaw. Scales large, ctenoid. Gill membranes joined to isthmus. A large genital papilla in 
each sex. Coloration plain. Size minute, the males rather smaller than females. 
Mistichthys luzonensis may be more particularly described as follows: 
Form elongated, compressed, tapering but slightly to the rather wide caudal peduncle. Depth of 
body equals about one-fourth total length, the female being slightly deeper than the male. Head 
large, its length contained 3.3 times in body; mouth large, oblique, the maxillary extending to a 
point under anterior border of pupil; lower jaw slightly longer than upper, the chin projecting; teeth 
short and numerous, arranged in a single row in each jaw; eye large, 3.3 in head; snout blunt, two- 
thirds diameter of eye; interorbital space about one-half eye; branchial membranes not united and 
joined to the isthmus. The dorsal fins are separated by an interval rather less than half the head; the 
anterior consists of 3 weak spine's and a rudiment adnate to the first spine, and is very low, its height 
being less than half diameter of eye; the second dorsal contains 8 or 9 rays, of which the posterior 
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