122 
OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM, 
Silver-gray, darkest on the back and head, where there is a distinct 
admixture of blue; body with 16 irregular brown bands, the first pair forming 
the borders of an elongate ellipse between the occiput and the anterior dorsal 
spines; the next 9 bands cross the head at different angles, the 5th, 6th, and 
7th passing through the eye ; these bands unite on the occiput, forehead, and 
snout, are as Avide or a little wider than the interspaces, and being roughly 
parallel to the first l)and and to one another, form ever-widening elliijses,- 
the continuity of which is only broken by the increasingly greater obliquity of 
the bands from the front; beyond the 7th band, Avhieh meets the dorsal ridge 
below the dtfi dorsal, the obliquity decreases; the last six bands originate on 
the body, the anterior pair meeting the soft dorsal, the middle pair uniting 
on the peduncular ridge, the last pair, which are horizontal, forked posteriorly, 
the inner branches coalescing on the base of the caudal, the outer pair curved and 
converging behind; the bands which impinge upon the soft dorsal extend over 
its scaly sheath, but with these two exceptions the fins are yelloAvish gray, as 
also are the abdominal, thoracic, and mandibular regions. 
Etyinology : — Latin: niidtus, many; viitatiis, banded. 
Reg, Xo, in the Queensland Museum — I. 13/1506. 
Range: — Of this species three examples only are known to me — namely, 
T\la-cleay’s two, from Avhich his description Avas druAvn up, and A\diich were col- 
lected for him by Spalding at Port Darwin, Northern Territory, and the present 
specimen from Darnley Island. It is true that Kent includes it in his 
“Classified List of Queensland Pood Pishes’^ (Great Barrier Reef, p. 369), 
but this list is in every Avay so unsatisfactory that no reliance can be placed 
upon it. 
How acquired: — Presented to tlie Queensland Museum by Dr. J. E. 
Tosh. 
Remarks: — The differentiation of the lianded Pleciorlujnclii is admittedly 
difficult, and is not rendered easier to the stiukmt, who has but a limited series 
on AAdiich to Avork, ])y the knoAvIedge, as demonstrated by Bleeker,^ that the 
number of the body-bands and the ornamentation of the fins varies Avith the 
age of the individual. iMacleay considered his fish to be affine to Rlectorhyyiclms 
heematochir- and R. polyiamkii'^ The latter may at once be dismissed, but its 
relationship is very close to P. goldmani,'^ Avhich A\'as founded on an immature 
fish, the adult of Avhich AA'as subsequently named 1\ Jicematochir.^ Our species^ 
^ Atlas lelith., viil, 1870, p. 14 et alibi. 
“Nat. Tidjs. Ncderl. Ind., vi, 1854, p. 175: Ternate. 
^ I bid., iii, 1852, p. 755: Macassar, 
^ Ibid., W, 1853, p. 602: Ternate (GoJdmanni in errore; see ibid., vi, p. 175). 
® Jordan & Seale (Fislies of Samoa, No. 672) revert to this name, but as I cannot find 
any mention of it prior to 1854 I adhere to the name adopted by Bleeker in the Atlas Ich- 
thyologique. 
