| OCR Text |
Show 1892.] MR. G. A. BOULENGER ON A NEW BLENNIOID FISH. 583 back of the neck is also black. A spot in tbe exact centre of the forehead just above the meeting of the eyebrows is, however, pale yellowish white. The pale cheeks and the pale sides of the neck are in this species in just as striking contrast to the dark crown as in S. hosei, and distinguish it equally from its near ally S. chryso-melas. In the skull the differences are of course but slight, and many specimens of each would be needed before any of them could be claimed as genuinely differential characters. Comparing the type skull of S. everetti with that of S. hosei, the brain-case is longer and more flattened, the orbits are more circular in outline, and the length of the zygomata is decidedly greater. The development of the fifth cusp to the last lower molar is very much the same in both, i. e. much less than in S. cristatus and the majority of the species, but much greater than in S. chrysomelas, a species remarkable for the almost entire suppression of the cusp. Dimensions of the type, an adult female in skin :-Head and body (c.) 550 millim., tail 650. Skull-basal length 63'7, greatest length (gnathion to occiput) 94, greatest breadth 70, combined length of upper premolars and molars 24, of molars onlv 162. The type specimen was obtained by Mr. Everett's hunters at an altitude of about 3500 feet on Mount Kina-balu, in March 1892. Mr. Hose's two specimens were killed at 3000 feet on Mount Dulit in June. The species is therefore no doubt a purely mountain one, and does not, like S. hosei, descend to the plains. This latter species, however, also occurs at considerable altitudes on Mount Dulit, but has not as yet been certainly found on Mount Kina-balu, the skull from that mountain doubtfully referred by me to it in 1889 x belonging very probably to S. everetti. Finally, I must of course admit the possibility of intermediate specimens between S. hosei and S. everetti occurring, and the consequent necessity for the reduction of the latter form to the rank of a subspecies; but in the absence of such intermediate forms and in view of the great constancy in the coloration of S. hosei already noted, it seems best to give a name to the striking variation from it now described. 2. Description of a new Blennioid Fish from Kamtschatka. By G. A. BOULENGER. [Received October 25, 1892.] BLENNIOPHIDIUM, g. n. Body elongate, compressed, covered with very small cycloid scales. Mouth small, horizontal, protractile, with fleshy lips; small conical teeth in jaws and on palate. No opercular spine. 1 T. c. p. 160. |
