288 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
241. Philypnus dormitor (Lacepede). “ Guavina.” 
Head 3; depth 5; eye 9.75; snout 3; maxillary 2.2; mandible 2.1; interorbital width 3.8; pre- 
orbital 9.5; D. vi-12; A. i, 10; scales about 61-23. Body long, subterete; head long, broad, 
depressed; snout long, lower jaw strongly projecting, the point a broad angle; mouth large, somewhat 
oblique, maxillary very long, reaching posterior border of orbit; eye nearly on level with top of head; 
cheeks full; teeth in each jaw in broad cardiform bands; vomerine teeth in a broad crescent-shaped 
patch; gillrakers 4 -j- 11, very short, covered with line prickles or spines, especially on their posterior 
surface. Fins all large; dorsal tins separated by a space less than half diameter of orbit, spines 
llexible, longest about- equal to snout and eye; last rays of second dorsal longest, somewhat longer than 
snout and eye, about 2 in head; caudal tin rounded, convex, the middle rays about 1.5 in head; last 
anal ray longest, a little shorter than last dorsal rays; pectoral broad, broadly pointed, with about 17 
rays, middle ones longest, about 1.8 in head, reaching beyond tips of ventrals; ventrals i, 5, about 2.2 
in head, their tips reaching less than two-thirds distance to vent. 
Color in life: Dark-yellowish or olive-brownish, back darkest, belly most yellow; sides with 
extensions of the dark of back; head dark, with a few small dark specks; arrangement of colors present- 
ing a mottled appearance as on body; fins all mottled with brown and yellowish, no dark border to 
spinous dorsal ; base of pectoral dark ; ventrals paler. 
This large goby is everywhere common in the fresh-water streams of the West Indies and the 
Atlantic shores of Mexico, Central America, and Surinam. It seems to be an abundant fish in all the 
larger streams of Porto Rico, specimens having been obtained bv us from the Rio Loiza and Rio de 
Caguitas near Caguas, and from the Rio Bayamon at Bayamon and near Palo Seco. It has been 
Fie. 87. — Philypnus dormitor. 
recorded from Havana, Martinique, Jamaica, Mexico, and Nicaragua. It reaches a length of 2 feet or 
more, and is one of the most important fresh-water food-fishes in Porto Rico and elsewhere in the 
West Indies. The examples obtained by us are 4 to 17 inches long. 
Guavina, Parra, Descr. Dif. Piezas, Hist. Nat. Cuba, tab. 39, fig. 1, 1787, Havana. 
Gobioinorus dormitor Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., II, 599, 1798, Martinique; from a drawing by Plunder. 
Platycephalus dormitator Bloch, Syst. Ichth., pi. 12, 1790, Martinique; after LacCpede. 
Batraehus guavina Bloch & Schneider, Syst. Ichth., 44, 1801; based on Guavina of Parra. 
Eleotris longiceps Gunther, Proe. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1864, 151, Nicaragua. 
Eleotris dormitatrix Cuvier, Regne Animal, ed. II, vol. 2, 246, 1829, Antilles. 
Philypnus dormitator, Poey, Fauna Puerto-Riquena, 339, 1881; Stahl, 1. c., 79 and 165, 1883. 
Philypnus dormitor, Jordan* Evermann, 1. c., 2194, 1898. 
Genus 134. DORMITATOR Gill. Punecas. 
Body short, robust; head broad and flat above; mouth little oblique; maxillary reaching to 
anterior margin of orbit; lower jaw little projecting; no teeth on vomer; lower pharyngeal teeth stiff 
and blunt, the bones with an external series broad, flexible, lamelliform, these being rudimentary gill- 
filaments; scales large, ctenoid, 30 to 33 in a longitudinal series; skull much as in Eleotris; D. vii-i, 8; 
A. i, 9 or 10; no spine on preopercle; post- temporals inserted midway between occipital crest and 
edge of skull; supraoccipital crest low. 
