Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 333 



well as adults with embryos have been taken often enough in summer to mark it as common 

 outside the reefs; two stations 17 to 20 miles off Cape Fear, North Carolina, in October 

 1885; and the outer edge of the continental shelf off Delaware Bay, in September 1884. 

 The geographic distribution of these localities, together with the fact that the more north- 

 erly captures in September and October were at stations where the temperature at the sur- 

 face (where it is probable that the specimens were caught) was 74° to 75° F., shows this to 

 be a tropical-subtropical species, occasionally straying northward along the coast of the 

 United States during the late summer and early autumn. It is to be expected throughout 

 the Caribbean region generally, and at least as far to the south as northern Brazil, if not 

 farther. 



Synonyms and References: 



Carchoruis {Prionodon) fdciformis Miiller and Henle, Plagiost., 1 841: 47 (descr., Cuba); Dumeril, Hist. 

 Nat. Poiss., I, 1865: 374 (descr. of type, Cuba); Gunther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 363, foot- 

 note (C?uba); Steindachner, Denkschr. Aicad. Wiss. Wien., 45 (l), 1 882: 14 (Goree, W. Africa); 

 Metzelaar, Trop. Atlant. Visschen, 1919: 187 (both coasts of Atlantic). 



Prionodon falciformis Guichenot, in Sagra, Hist. Cuba, 1855: 248, pi. 5, fig. 3 (ill., Cuba, not seen); 

 Poey, Repert. Fisico.-Nat. Cuba, 2, 1868: 172 (discus.). 



Squalus tiburo Poey, Meraorias, 2, i860: 331, 334 (descr., Cuba); Repert. Fisico.-Nat. Cuba, 2, 1868: 172^' 

 (Cuba) ; not Squalus tiburo Linnaeus, 1758. 



Prionodon tiburo Poey, Memorias, 2, i860: pi. 19, fig. I, 2 (teeth, Cuba). 



Platyfodon tiburo Poey, Repert. Fisico.-Nat. Cuba, 2, 1 868: 448, pi. 4, fig. 18 (teeth, Cuba). 



Plotyfodon falciformis Poey, Repert. Fisico.-Nat. Cuba, 2, 1868: 449; Ann. Soc. esp. Hist, nat., 5, 1876: 387; 

 Enumerat. Pise. Cubens., 1876: 191 (discus., refs. to Muller and Henle, 1841, and to Dumeril, 1865). 



Carcharhinus {Platyfodon) falciformis Jordan and Evermann, Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. (1895), 1896: 216 

 (Cuba); Bull. U.S. nat. Mus., 47 (i), 1896: 36 (descr., Cuba). 



Carcharhinus falciformis Evermann and Marsh, Bull. U.S. Bur. Fish., 20 (i), 1902: 62 (meas., Porto Rico; 

 one of two specimens, the other being C. floridanus Bigelow, Schroeder and Springer, 1 943: 71) ; Vincent, 

 Sea Fish. Trinidad, 1910: 53 (name only, Trinidad) ; Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 1913: 

 129 (descr., Cuba, West Indies); Beebe and Tee-Van, Zoologica, N. Y., 10 (6), 1928: 28 (Haiti, 

 meas.) ; Nichols, Sci. Surv. Porto Rico, N. Y. Acad. Sci., 10 (2), 1929: 183 (Porto Rico) ; White, Bull. 

 Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., 74, 1937: 125 (in Key). 



Carcharias falciformis Jordan, Evermann and Clark, Rep. U.S. Comm. Fish. (1928), 2, 1930: 16 (Cuba 

 and neighboring w/aters) ; Beebe and Tee-Van, Zoologica, N. Y., 13, 1932: 119 (Bermuda); Field Bk. 

 Shore Fish. Bermuda, 1933: 27 (Bermuda). 



Eulamia falciformis Fowler, Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., 70 (l), 1936: 49 (trop. W. Afr., max. size) ; Bige- 

 low and Schroeder, Guide Comm. Shark Fish., Anglo Amer. Caribb. Comm., Wash., 1945: 78, fig. 23 

 (descr., range, ill.). 



Carcharhinus floridanus Bigelow, Schroeder and Springer, 1943 



Silky Shark 



Figures 58, 59 



Study Material. Type, female about 8 feet (2,328 mm.) long, taken off Fort 

 Pierce, Florida, in about 100 feet of water on November 2, 1942 (Harv. Mus. Comp. 



15. Poey concluded that tiburo was a synonym of falciformis, but later (ibid., p. 448) questioned this. However, 

 there appears to be nothing to difierentiate it from falciformis. 



