Page:Travels in West Africa, Congo Français, Corisco and Cameroons (IA travelsinwestafr00kingrich).pdf/768



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Mormyrus lepturus, Günth. P.Z.S. 1871, p. 670, pl. lxix, fig. B.

? Mormyrus granaisguamis, Peters, MB, Berl. Akad. 1876, p. 250.

I described this species from two young specimens 3 inches long. Miss Kingsley has rediscovered it at Talagouga, and collected specimens apparently adult and up to 190 millim. in length. Thus I am enabled to amend my original diagnosis in several] points.

Snout obtuse, with the mouth terminal and, with age, with the lower lip thickened into a short adipose protuberance. The upper profile is somewhat more curved than the lower. Eye small, shorter than (in adult specimens only half as long as) the snout, situated in the anterior half of the head. Teeth of moderate size, notched, few in number. The height of the body is two-sevenths of the total length (without caudal) the length of the head two-ninths. The caudal peduncle is slender, about as long as the head, its depth being one-third of its length. Origin of the dorsal fin a little behind that of the anal, midway between the root of the caudal and the head. Pectoral a little shorter than the head, extending to the middle of the ventral, which is only half as long and terminates a long way from the vent. The scales of the anterior part of the trunk are of moderate size; they gradually increase in size towards behind, and are largest on the hinder part of the tail and on the caudal peduncle, on the side of which they stand in three series. Brownish or silvery, darker on the head. Two black vertical bands descend from the anterior and hindmost dorsal rays to the anal, spreading more or less over that fin.

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Mormyrops sphekodes, Sauvage, Bull. Soc. Philom. 1878, p. 101; Arch. Mus. iii, 1880, p. 55, pl. ii. fig. 4.

The teeth on the palate and tongue are well developed. Sauvage's description is fairly applicable to a specimen from Talagouga, 138 millim. long, but I count only 65 transverse series of scales, whilst Sauvage states 82. The diameter of the eye is only one-eighth of the length of the head in our