| OCR Text |
Show 1902.J ICHTHYOLOGY OF THE CONGO. 235 process f the length of the head. Pectoral half the length of the head ; spine smooth, f the length of the fin. Ventrals small, twice as distant from the root of the caudal as from the end of the snout. Caudal § the length of the head. Dark olive-brown above, whitish beneath; vertical fins dark, anal edged with white (red ?). Total length 210 millim. A single specimen was obtained by Mr. G. L. Bates in the Ja River, French Congo, 250 miles from the coast. The nearest ally of this new fish is Clariallabes melas Blgr., from the Lower Congo, which differs, apart from the generic character of the absence of a free border to the eye, in the longer head, the more numerous rays to the dorsal and anal fins, which unite with the base of the caudal, and the presence of serrations on both sides of the pectoral spine. Clariallabes melas has never been figured; the upper surface of the head and of the anterior part of the body is represented on PI. XXII. fig. 2, for comparison with Allabenchelys longicauda. LABEO LUKUL^E, sp. n. (Plate XXIII.) Body compressed, its depth nearly 4 times in total length; length of head 4j times in total length. Head once and a half as long as broad; snout obtusely pointed, strongly projecting beyond the mouth, covered with large nuptial tubercles ; eye supero-lateral, in the second half of the head, its diameter 6 times in length of head, 2| in width of interorbital region, which is flat; width of mouth, with folded lips, half length of head ; rostral flap and anterior border of lip not denticulated ; posterior border of lip denticulated ; inner surface of lip with numerous feeble, transverse plicae ; a minute barbel, |- the diameter of the eye, hidden in the folds at the sides of the mouth. Dorsal III 10, with notched upper border; the longest ray equals the length of the head and twice that of the last; fin a little nearer the root of the caudal than the end of the snout. Anal II 5 ; longest ray f length of head. Pectoral falcate, as long as head, not reaching base of ventral. Ventral reaching vent, its first ray falling under the seventh (fourth branched) ray of the dorsal. Caudal deeply forked, with pointed lobes. Caudal peduncle once and a half as long as deep. Scales 35 If ; 4 series of scales between the lateral line and the root of the ventral; 12 scales round the caudal peduncle. Dark olive, belly whitish. Total length 250 millim. A single specimen from the Lukula River, preserved in the Royal Natural History Museum, Brussels. This species is to be placed near L. macrostomus, L. greenii, and L. nasus, from all three of which it is easily distinguished by the number of scales round the caudal peduncle-12 instead of 16 or 18 ; in this character agreeing with L. parvus, which differs in the shorter, less prominent snout, the shorter caudal peduncle, and one series of V 16* |
