2IO Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



dorsal and at origin of 2nd dorsal. Pelvics a little larger in area than ist dorsal, sub- 

 triangular, with rounded apices and moderately acute rear corners, the inner margins 

 united behind cloaca for a little more than V2 their lengths in immature male. Pectoral 

 about twice as large in area as ist dorsal and % to % as broad as long, with rounded cor- 

 ners, slightly convex outer margin and straight distal margin. 



Color. The ground tint is dark reddish brown above, yellowish below, with a very 

 characteristic pattern of narrow, sooty black stripes in groups of two crossing the back 

 just behind the pectorals, at the first dorsal, between the first and second dorsals, at the 

 second dorsal, at the anterior end of the caudal, and midway out on the latter; these 

 branching over the sides and out onto the pectorals in a loose net of polygonal meshes 

 which are irregular in size and shape. 



Size. The largest specimen so far measured was 17 inches (430 mm.) long, the maxi- 

 mum length probably not being more than 2 to 2 ^/'2 feet. 



Developmental Stages. Horny egg cases, presumably of this species (the only ovipa- 

 rous shark common off the middle Atlantic United States), are 50 to 57 mm. long by 

 1 8 to 23 mm. broad, with a long tendril at each corner and brownish amber in color. 



Habits. This little shark lives on or close to bottom on the outer part of the Con- 

 tinental Shelf, chiefly at least between about the 40 and 125 fathom contours, all definite 

 records of it having so far been from within this depth range. There is no reason to suppose 

 that it ever strays shoreward into shoal water. Eggs, one with an embryo nearly ready for 

 hatching and others less advanced, have been taken in February off Chesapeake Bay, evi- 

 dence that the young are produced in late winter or early spring. Nothing more is known 

 of its life history, and nothing of its diet. 



Range. All recorded captures of S. retifer have been from between the ofiings of 

 Cape Lookout, North Carolina, and northern New Jersey. Fishermen also report small 

 sharks, probably this species, on the Tilefish grounds at the outer edge of the Continental 

 Shelf off New York. Within this short sector, however, it appears to be very generally 

 distributed in the appropriate depth zone. Its chief center of abundance appears to lie off 

 Virginia (type locality, Lat. 38° 23' N., Long. 73° 34' W.), especially in the general 

 offing of Chesapeake Bay, where considerable numbers are taken by the winter trawl fishery 

 from January to March, specimens being brought in daily at times. S. retifer has also been 

 reported by name from the Tortugas, Florida," and from some unspecified locality be- 

 tween southern Florida, the Bahamas and Honduras.'* Re-examination in the first case 

 shows that the shark in question was Galeus arae (p. 21 1) j and since the second of these 

 records is by name only, the same may be true of it also. 



Synonyms and References: 



ScylliujTi retiferum Garman, Bull. Mus. comp. Zool. Harv., 8, 1881: 233 (descr., Lat. 38° 23' N., Long. 



73°34'W.). 

 Scyllior/iinus relifer Jordin and Gilbert, BuU. U.S. nat. Mus., 16, 1883: 869 (ref.) ; Bean, Rep. U.S. Comm. 



Fish. (1882), 1884:343 (oflf Woods Hole) ; Jordan, Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. (1885), 1887:733 (off SE. 



33. Longley and Hildebrand, Pap. Tortugas Lab., 34, 1941 : i. 



34. Breder, Bull. Bingham Oceanog. Coll., 1 (i), 1927: 5. 



