INTRODUCTION Fishes of the genus Macrones Duméril (= Mystus Scopoli), family Bagridae, are mainly distributed from Syria in the north-west, through Pakistan, Ceylon, India, Bangladesh, Burma, Thailand and Malaya, to the East Indies. Thirty-eight species have been described in the genus, of which six are reported as occurring in China (Jayaram, 1966: 445). In an earlier communication (Jayaram, 1968: 294) it was surmised that the genus may not be found in China and that the six species described from that country be best left out of Chinese lists, or that they may be placed under the predominantly Chinese genus Pelteobagrus Bleeker. Through the kind courtesy and co-operation of Dr. Volker Mahnert, Geneva, Dr. P. Kähsbauer, Vienna and Dr. M.-L. Bauchot, Paris, it has been possible for the first author to examine the types of some of the Chinese species hitherto referred to Mystus. Their generic position and systematic status have been published elsewhere (Jayaram, 1974, 1977). It has been shown that, with the exception of two species, the other three are referable to Pelteobagrus and that even these two real Mystus species are only relicts, fastly disappearing from China. During the course of the present investigations, the iconotype of Macrones 1) The second author primarily provided some pertinent information while both authors independently came to the same conclusion regarding the status of Bleeker's species. sinensis Bleeker, preserved in the Rijksmuseum van Natuurlijke Historie, Leiden, was examined. This paper is presumed to settle the identity and the generic and family position of this species. THE SYSTEMATIC POSITION