CO129-554-6 Hong Kong University- 1. Appointment of Dr. Chen Shas Yi as head of Chinese Department... 18-3-1935 - 28-10-1935 — Page 63

64

| 133

A Synopsis of the Fishes of China

Pegasus draconis Linnaeus. Figure 53.

Pegasus draconis Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 12, pt. 1, 1766, p. 418. India. Bleeker, Ned. Tyds. Dierk., vol. 4, 1873 (1874), p. 125 (reference).- Chu, Biol. Bull. St. John's Univ., No. 1, January 1931, p. 99 (reference).

Pegasus draco Duméril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. 2, 1870, p. 490 (China). Pegasus latirostris Richardson, Ichth. China and Japan, 1846, p. 203. Sea of China.

Pegasus natans (not Linnaeus) Kaup, Cat. Lophobr. Fish Brit. Mus., 1856, pl. 1, fig. 3 (ventral view).

Trunk gibbous, median depressed part divided by 3 cross ridges; obtuse tubercles at meeting points of transverse and longitudinal ridges. Pair of deep grooves on neck. Tail with 8 rings, first and second and fourth and fifth rings with compressed spine directed backwards in middle of side. Snout extended, with 4 denticulated ridges, 2 lower of which dilated with age, forming semioval expansion. Dorsal 5; Anal 5; pcctoral 11, fifth ray not stronger than others; ventral 2. Body finely reticulated with brown. Snout and 2 or 3 last caudal rings black. Pectoral rays with fine brown dots; fin with broad milky white edge, within which another concentric whitish band.

(Günther.)

H.W.F

Figure 53. Pegasus draconis Linnaeus.

China (Zanzibar, India, East Indies, Melanesia). Reaches 84 mm.

PARAPEGASUS Duméril.

Parapegasus Duméril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., vol. 2, 1870, p. 493. Type Pegasus natans Linnaeus, designated by Jordan, Genera of Fishes, pt. 3, 1919, P. 357.

July 1935.