FISHES OF THE GULF OF MAINE 



67 



Figure 28. — Leopard skate (Raja garmani), female, 16 inches long, offing of Montauk Point, New York. From Bigelow 



and Schroeder. Drawing by E. N. Fischer. 



freckled with small spots, darker or lighter, and 

 conspicuously marked with dark rosettes, each 

 consisting of a group of 6 or more dark brown or 

 black spots surrounding a dark central spot. The 

 lower surface is white or pale yellow. 



Size. — This is one of the smaller skates, males 

 maturing when only about 16 inches long. 



General range. — Outer part of the continental 

 shelf and upper part of the continental slope from 

 southern Florida to the offing of Nantucket, in 

 depths of 30 to 300 fathoms. 



Occurrence in the Gulf of Maine. — Our only 

 reason for mentioning this species is that one 

 specimen was trawled by the Albatross III, May 

 14, 1950, at 52 fathoms southeast of Nantucket 

 Lightship (lat. 40°05' N., long. 69°22' W.). 

 And this is probably close to the eastern boundary 

 of its range, for it has never been reported among 

 the other skates that are trawled in abundance 

 along the seaward slopes of Georges and of the 

 Nova Scotia Banks. But it is one of the most 

 plentiful of skates offshore to the westward, along 

 southern New England. 



Little skate Raja erinacea Mitchill 1825 



Common skate; Summeh skate; Hedgehog 

 skate; Tobacco box 



Bigelow and Schroeder, 1953, p. 176 

 Garman, 1913, pi. 20. 



Description. — The most distinctive characters of 

 grown specimens are their small size, absence of 

 thorns along the midline of the back (except in 

 the young) and blunt nose. 



The anterior angle of the disc is blunter than 

 a right angle and the tip of the snout is rounded, 

 with the margins bulging opposite the eyes. The 

 teeth are in only about 38 to 66 series. Females 

 have thorns scattered generally over the upper 

 surface; these are especially prominent on head, 

 snout, shoulders, and sides of tail. Ordinarily 

 there are no spines on the midline, back of the 

 shoulder girdle; but we found one fish, 13% inches 

 long, among the many we have observed, with 

 a median row of spines extending from the 

 shoulder girdle to the first dorsal fin near the 



