AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES

Published by

Number 1107

Tue AmERICAN Museum or Natura History

May 14, 1941

New York City

FOUR NEW FISHES FROM WESTERN CHINA

By J. T. NicHois

Through the kind offices of Mr. Dean Sage and The American Museum of Natu- ral History’s Department of Mammal- ogy, 4 collection of upward of 50 species of fishes from western China has been placed in my hands for study. Coming from a different faunal area than collections made earlier by the Asiatic Expeditions of the Museum, it contains a number of species I had listed but not previously seen, some re- cently and some long described, and is hence of no little interest. Two catfishes and two carps in this collection apparently represent undescribed forms. Drawings of two of the types are by J. J. Ter Pelkwijk.

Leiocassis omeihensis, new species

DEscrIPTION OF TypE.—No. 15217 American Museum of Natural History, from Omeihsein, Szechwan, China, altitude 1600 ft., collected August, 1938, by C. K. Liu.

Length to base of caudal, 103 mm. Depth in this length, 3.6; head, 4.3. Eye in head, 7; snout, 2.7; interorbital, 2.8; maxillary, 3; width of mouth, 2.4; maxillary barbel, 4; great- est width of body, 1.38; depth of peduncle, 2.2; its length, 1.8; dorsal spine, 2.1; pectoral spine, 2.1; longest dorsal ray, 2.5; longest anal ray, 2.4; caudal, 1.4; pectoral, 1.9; ventral, 2.1; adipose base, 1.5; dorsal interspace, 1.2.

Dorsal rays, I, 7; anal, 15.

Bones of head well covered; snout blunt, somewhat projecting; mouth inferior, trans- verse, with thick, slightly striate lips; eye small, with a free rim; barbels all small. Dorsal and pectoral spines small, the dorsal spine slender, smooth on both edges; pectoral spine heavier, serrate on the inner edge; adipose low in front, becoming gradually higher posteriorly, distance from its axil to its free posterior angle, 4.5 in its base; caudal rounded, with precurrent rays forming keels above and below, a slight notch in the center of its hind margin.

Color in preservative gray, darker on top of head, pale from jaws to ventrals; adipose and caudal dusky; ventrals pale; dorsal pale with a broad dusky margin; anal pale in center, some- what dusky at base and margin.

Only one specimen, which resembles

Letocassis medianalis from Yunnan some- what, but has a deeper body, smaller spines, shorter anal, and other differences from this.

Glyptosternon punctatum, new species

DESCRIPTION OF TyPE.—No. 15218 American Museum of Natural History, from Kiating, Szechwan, China, altitude 1100 ft., collected July, 1938, by C. K. Liu.

Length to base of caudal, 72 mm. Depth in this length, 5.8; head, 4. Width of head in head, 1.3; interorbital, 3.5; width of mouth, 2; maxillary barbel, 1.2; depth of peduncle, 2.7; its length (from anal axil), 1.5; dorsal spine, 2; pectoral spine, 1.5; longest dorsal ray, 1.8; height of adipose, 4; its base, 2; dorsal inter- space, 1; caudal lobe, 1.1; longest anal ray, 1.7; pectoral, 1.2; ventral, 1.6. Eye in interorbital, 2.5.

Dorsal rays, I, 6; anal, 10. Skin in large part densely papillose.

Body flattened below, back to the ventrals, striate between the pectorals which are almost horizontal; the head depressed, especially in front, gently convex above, well covered with skin. The broad flattened maxillary barbel reaches about to base of pectoral; gill-mem- branes are joined to a moderately broad isthmus. Pectoral spine stout, strongly barbed on the in- side; dorsal spine weakly serrate behind; pec- toral reaching 4/5 the distance to ventrals, ven- trals 4/5 to anal; caudal moderately forked, with rounded lobes about equal in length.

Color in preservative dark gray, pale on lower surface of head and breast; with scattered black- ish spots on back and caudal, which coalesce to form a dark band from the adipose to the anal axil; dark basal and submarginal bands on dor- sal and anal; adipose dark, its free portion pale.

Compared with specimens of G. fokiensts and G. sinense, it resembles the latter, but differs from it notably in having a deeper peduncle, and caudal with equal rounded lobes.

A second specimen 68 mm. long, collected in August but otherwise with the same data, is deeper (depth, 4.5), with longer barbels (maxillary barbel as long as head, reaching past pectoral base), and much less notice-

2 AMERICAN MUSEUM NOVITATES

[No. 1107

Fig. 1.

ably spotted. The proportions of its pe- duncle are similar to those of the type’s.

Rasborinus taeniatus, new species

DESCRIPTION OF TyPE.—No. 15219 American Museum of Natural History, from Kiating, Szechwan, China, altitude 1100 ft., collected July, 1938, by C. K. Liu.

Length to base of caudal, 85 mm. Depth in this length, 3.9; head, 3.7. Eye in head, 3.5; snout, 3.7; maxillary, 3.5; interorbital, 3.2; width of body, 2; depth of peduncle, 2.3; its length, 1.4; longest dorsal ray, 1.1; longest anal ray, 2; caudal broken; pectoral, 1.2; ven- tral, 1.5.

Dorsal rays, 9 (the second spinous at base, soft and segmented at tip); anal rays, 17. Scales, about 51. ;

Body compressed, breast before ventrals well rounded, belly behind ventrals keeled. Inter- orbital slightly convex; mouth oblique, maxil- lary not reaching to under front of eye; lower jaw very slightly included. Dorsal origin equi- distant from base of caudal and front of eye, over

Fig. 2. Glyptosternon punctatum, type. Head from below.

ventral axil; pectoral not quite reaching ventral; ventral not quite reaching anal. Lateral line moderately bent down without abrupt changes in direction, rising to center of peduncle behind anal axil.

Colors faded and pale; upper part of gill-

Glyptosternon punctatum, type.

Standard length 72 mm.

cover dusky, and a slight dusky central band from below the dorsal backward on the pe- duncle, ill-defined more anteriorly.

Only one specimen, not well preserved. Obvious differences which it shows from its relatives in eastern China are more nu- merous scales, slenderer body, and dark longitudinal band, very likely quite distinct in life.

Coreius platygnathus, new species

DESCRIPTION OF TyPE.—No. 15220 American Museum of Natural History, from Chungking, Szechwan, China, altitude 750 ft., collected May, 1938, by S. W. Chang.

Length to base of caudal, 112 mm. Depth in this length, 4.4; head, 4. Eye in head, 9; snout, 2.6; interorbital, 2.5; maxillary, 2.5; width of mouth, 3.6; barbel, 1.5; width of body, 1.6; depth of peduncle, 2.5; its length, 1.2; longest dorsal ray, 1; longest anal ray, 1.4; caudal lobe, 0.8 1/2; pectoral, 0.9; ventral, 1.4.

Dorsal rays, 9; anal, 8. Scales, 56.

Head somewhat conical; body somewhat tri- angular, flat below; tail compressed. Snout pointed; interorbital convex; mouth horizontal, inferior, horseshoe-shaped, the maxillary ending in a membranous point which extends to under eye, this and lips posteriorly weakly papillose; lower jaw broad and flat; a single pair of long maxillary barbels which reach back about to the margin of the gill-cover; gill openings wide, gill-membranes narrowly joined to isthmus. Dorsal origin slightly in advance of that of ven- tral, midway between end of snout and anal axil; dorsal and pectoral falcate; pectoral reaching past ventral origin, ventrals not quite reaching vent, which is slightly before anal origin; free border of anal concave; caudal well forked, with pointed lobes. Scales with conspicuous parallel horizontal striae; breast and belly fully scaled. Colors faded, pale.

Only one specimen, quite different from Coreius styant with which it has been com- pared, and which has a narrower mouth and does not have its wide, flat lower jaw. It shows some resemblances to Corevus zent