On a collection of East Asian fishes

A collection of 561 specimens of East Asian freshwater fishes has recently been presented to the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie at Leiden by Mr. A. Werner, Munich, a well known collector and naturalist. A close examination of the present material provided several interesting data, which are given below, while one sample proved to belong to a species and genus new to science. The localities given by Mr. Werner are : Colombo, Calcutta, Bangkok, and Singapore, but some of the Singapore material seems to have been imported, presumably from Sumatra or Borneo. Kryptopterus bicirrhis (C. V.) 18 ex., Singapore, probably 1956, 38-73 (46-87) mm. Occasionally the name Cryptopterus is still used for the present species. The original name was given by Bleeker (1858, p. 283) as Kryptopterus. Kaup (1859, p. 11) used the name Cryptopterus for his new genus of apodal fishes; it has to be rejected as a homonym and, moreover, is at present regarded as a synonym of Ophichthys Ahl (1789, p. 5). Günther ( 1864, p. 38) corrected Bleeker's name to Cryptopterus, an example followed by numerous later authors, but at present Bleeker's orthography is generally preferred. Botia macracanthus (Blkr.) 30 ex., Singapore (probably imported from Borneo), 1956?, 26-52 (33-66) mm. This very characteristic species seems to occur only in Borneo and Sumatra; it is not mentioned in Fowler's list of the fishes known from Malaya (1938, p. 54). Botia horae Smith