Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 453 



Key to Atlantic Species 



I a. Upper surface of disc and pelvics conspicuously pale-spotted on a dark ground; 

 disc and tail entirely smooth except for tail spines. 



narinari (Euphrasen) 1790, p. 453. 

 I b. Upper surface of disc and pelvics plain-colored; upper surface of head, midzone 

 of disc, and tail more or less prickly on large specimens. 



flagellum (Bloch and Schneider) 1801. 

 Indian Ocean, China, Red Sea, tropical West Africa. 



Aetobatus narinari (Euphrasen) 1790 

 Spotted Duck-billed Ray, Spotted Eagle Ray 

 Figures 105, 106 



Study Material. Eighteen specimens, 350— 1,220 mm wide (14—48 in.), from: 

 Bermuda; Beaufort, North Carolina; Gulf of Mexico at Tampa, Florida, Main Pass, 

 Louisiana, and Gulf of Campeche; Bahamas, Culebra, Puerto Rico, and vicinity of 

 Havana, Cuba in the West Indies; Pernambuco and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; dental 

 plates of Rio de Janeiro specimen about 560 mm wide; a head of one from Anway Bay, 

 Gulf of Venezuela; an immature male, iiomm wide, of unknown origin, labelled 

 "Europe"; also four specimens, 515—748 mm wide, and five embryos, 170— 250 mm 

 wide, from Pacific Panama, and one, 500 mm wide, from the Hawaiian Islands; in 

 Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology and the U. S. National Museum. 



Distinctive Characters. The color pattern of Aetobatus narinari is sufficiently spectac- 

 ular to place it at a glance among Rays of the western Atlantic. And recognition of old 

 faded specimens or of those that have been so dried that the spots have disappeared 

 is made easy by the fact that Rays of its genus stand alone in having only one series of 

 broad flat teeth in each jaw, combined into a single dental plate. 



Description. Proportional dimensions in per cent of extreme breadth of disc. Male, 

 530 mm broad, from Bermuda, and female, 595 mm broad, from Florida (Harv. Mus. 

 Comp. ZooL, Nos. 1400 and 36327 respectively). 



Disc: vertical length 57.9, 58.7. 



Snout length: in front of orbits 6.6, 7.0; in front of mouth i i.i, i i.i. 



Orbits: horizontal diameter 4.3, 4.4; distance between 9.6, 10.4. 



Spiracles: length 5.1, 4.9; distance between 10.4, 9.9. 



Mouth: breadth 6.0, 5.9. 



Exposed nostrils: distance between inner ends 4.1, 4.5. 



Gill openings: lengths, ist 1.9, 1.7; 3rd 2.3, 1.9; 5th 1.3, 1.3; distance between 

 inner ends, ist 13.7, 14.5; 5th 9.4, 9.4. 



and which was identified by him with the "Eel Tenkee," or "Raja ocellata; capite magno, exerto; . ." of Russell 

 (Fish. Coromandel, j, 1803: 5, pi. 8), appears to fall within the limits of variation of A. narinari in both of the 

 characters that Garman thought distinctive for it, namely shape of subrostral fin and color pattern. Unfortunately 

 the specimen on which he based his account appears to be in existence no longer. 



