Waite. — Notes on New Zealand Fishes. 127 



Art. XXII. — Notes on New Zealand Fishes : No. 4. 



By Edgar R. Waite, F.L.S., Curator, Canterbury Museum. 



[Read before the Philosophical Institute of Canterbury, 3rd December, 1913.] 



Plates III-VI. 



Several interesting fishes are herein dealt with. Two of them (Mora 

 pacifica and Melanostigma flaccidum) are described as new, and provide the 

 first occurrence of their respective genera in New Zealand seas. A second 

 occurrence of Scymnorhinus licha is noted. Foetal specimens of Centro- 

 phorus plunketi are described and figured, and similar treatment is accorded 

 an example of the deal or unicorn fish, identified with Lophotes cepedianus. 



16. Centrophorus plunketi Waite, 

 Plate III. 



Centrophorus plunketi Waite, Trans. N.Z. Inst., vol. 42, 1910, p. 384, 

 pi. xxxvii. 



This species was first diagnosed four years ago from an example caught 

 off Kaikoura, and in July last (1913) I received a second specimen from the 

 same locality, by favour of Messrs. Nilsen Brothers. 



This individual is slightly smaller than the previous one, being 1398 mm. 

 in length. It also is a female, and is interesting from the fact that it was 

 gravid, thirty-six young ones being obtained from the uteri. They are all 

 of similar size, being 165 mm. in length, but had evidently not nearly 

 reached their full foetal development, as the yolk-sac is large (66 mm. in 

 diameter) and almost globular. At this stage the gills are still external, 

 being apparent as red filaments, and, as usual, branchial filaments are also 

 protruded through the spiracle. The predorsal spines do not at this stage 

 show the protective knobs found in the foetus of Squalus* though they may 

 be a later foetal development. 



In its ball-like form and short thick peduncle, the yolk-sac of Centro- 

 phorus agrees with Squalus, and differs greatly from that of Galeus, which I 

 have described f as of peculiar shape, provided with a long umbilical cord, 

 entering the sac towards the larger end. 



The colour of the adult shark is uniform dark brown ; it is interest- 

 ing, therefore, to find that the foetal examples are white beneath, as 

 with the majority of adult fishes and sharks, perhaps indicating that 

 the uniform coloration of Centrophorus and Scymnorhinus is an acquired 

 character. 



* Waite, Rec. Aust. Mus., vol. 4, 1901, p. 33, pi. iv, fig. 2. 

 t Waite, ibid., 1902, p. 175, fig. 19. 



