Hamilton. — Occurrence of Genus Trachipterus in 'New Zealand. 373 



The specimen, a female, mea- 

 sures approximately 6 ft. in length, 

 and was found on the sandy beach 

 at Waikanae, near Wellington. 



A comparison of this description 

 with Ramsay's original notes indi- 

 cates that the species are identical. 

 T. ishihawae Jordan and Snyder is 

 synonymous with this species. 



Ogilby(2), in summarizing the 

 occurrence of Trachipterus in the 

 Australasian region, includes under 

 the name jacksoniensis specimens re- 

 corded by McCoy(3) as T. taenia and 

 those of Hutton and John.ston as T. 

 altivelis. He considers T. jackson- 

 ensis to be the adult form of T. 

 taenia and T. altivelis, the dark 

 markings being merely indicative of 

 immaturity, yet he gives subspecific 

 rank to a specimen he describes, 

 diiieiing, as he states, from T. jack- 

 sonensis in having the head and 

 body dappled. 



Unless the adult forms of ' this 

 family lose the granulations on the 

 fin rays, and also the spiny tubercles 

 at the base of the spines, there can 

 be no identity of T. taenia, T. altivelis, 

 or T. polystictus with a form like 

 T. jacksonensis, which has no spinules 

 or granulations on the spine rays. 

 As far as at present known, no 

 radical change takes place on the 

 surface of the fin rays with increasing 

 age. 



I have not seen either of Hut- 

 ton's specimens of T. altivelis, but 

 it is extremely probable that he 

 based his identification on the de- 

 scription in Giinther's catalogue, and 

 would have noticed whether the fin 

 rays were granular or not. As T. 

 altivelis or some closely allied species 

 seems to be the most common New 

 Zealand form, it may be assumed 

 that the granulations were present in 

 Hutton' s specimen. 



The specimen under considera- 

 tion appears to be the second re- 

 corded occurrence of T. jacksonensis 

 in the Australasian region. 



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