4o6 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



details from Maryland and from Virginia; one six feet wide from Delaware Bay;" 

 a very small one from Barnegat, New Jersey, examined by us ; one 6 feet 7 inches wide 

 from Newport, Rhode Island, which was the basis for Lesueur's (i 8 17) species maclura; 

 one four feet wide from Point Judith, Rhode Island, in our Study Material; and a male 

 1,208 mm from Woods Hole, Massachusetts, also included in our Study Material, the 

 capture of which" has formed the basis for extending the known range of this species 

 northward and eastward to Massachusetts. To complete the record, we should note 

 the possibility that some of the Butterfly Rays that have been recorded from the Middle 

 and South Atlantic coasts of the United States as maclura, but without any other 

 indication as to their specific identity," may have been altavela. 



These recorded captures are so few as to raise the question whether G. altavela 

 occurs regularly anywhere along the coasts of North or South America. Perhaps small 

 local populations develop temporarily here or there, recruited by the young that are 

 produced wherever adults occur. It is even possible that the presence of this species 

 in the western side of the Atlantic may depend on occasional individuals that stray in 

 the equatorial currents, north or south, from the West African side, where this Butterfly 

 Ray appears to be much more plentiful. 



Synonyms and References: 



Raja altavela Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., I, 1758: 232 (Medit.). 



Raja pastinaca p altavela Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., I, 1766: 396 (Europe). 



Raja altavela p Graelin, Syst. Nat., j, 1789: 1509. 



Dasyatis altavilla Rafinesque, Indice Ittiol. Sicil., 18 10: 49 (listed, Sicily). 



Raja maclura Lesueur, J.Acad, nat. Sci. Philad., i, 1817: 41, pi. not numbered (descr., color, ill., size; 

 Newport, Rhode Island).** 



Le Pastenaque de Fabius Columna (no scientific name) Blainville, in Vieillot, Faune Frang., Poiss., 1825: 37*^ 

 (descr.). 



Trygon maclura Cuvier, Regne Anim., 2, 1829: 400, footnote (by ref. to Lesueur, 18 17); Storer, Mem. Amer. 

 Acad. Arts Sci., N. S. 2, 1846: 513 (descr., Rhode Island, by ref to Lesueur, 18 17). 



Trygon altavela Bonaparte, Icon. Faun. Ital., J, 1835: pi. not numbered (descr., ill., Medit.); Lowe, Proc. 

 zool. Soc. Lond., 1839: 92 (Madeira); Trans, zool. Soc. Lond., 3 (i), 1842: 20 (same as Lowe, 1839, 

 Madeira); Vieira, Ann. Sci. nat. Porto., 4, 1897: 142 (listed, Setubal, Portugal). 



Pteroplatea altavela M tiller and Henle, Plagiost., 1841 : 168 (descr., meas., Medit., Adant. O., Brazil); Bona- 

 parte, Att. Congr. Sci. Ital. Genoa (1845), 1846: 12 extra; also. Cat. Pesc. Europ., 1846: 12 (listed); 

 Dumeril, Hist. Nat. Poiss., I, 1865 : 61 1 (descr., color, spiracular tentacle mentioned, but not tail spine); 

 Canestrini, in Cornalia et al., Fauna d'ltal., Pesci, 2, 1870: 60 (listed, Naples, Sicily, Gulf of Venice); 

 Giinther, Cat. Fish. Brit. Mus., 8, 1870: 486 (descr., Madeira and Brazil); Gervais and Boulart, Poiss., 

 2, 1877: 246, pi. 97 (descr., color); Giglioli, Elenc. Pesc. Ital., 1880: 55 (listed); Brito-Capello, Cat. 

 Peix. Portugal, Mem. Acad. Sci. Lisboa, 46 (i), 1881: 53 (listed, Portugal); Doderlein, Man. Ittiol. 

 Medit., 2, 1881: 230 (descr., refs., Medit. locals.);** Perugia, Elenc. Pesc. Adriat., 1881: 59 (listed, 

 Venice); Carus, Prod. Fauna Medit., 2, 1 889-1 893: 518 (diagn., Medit.); Moreau, Poiss. France, 

 Suppl., 1891: 14 (descr., color, meas., S.France); Ichthyol. Fran?., 1892: 82 (not seen); Vinciguerra, 



41. Reported with photographs by Harold Haskin as speared in August 1948 at Pierce's Point, Delaware Bay, in shallow 

 water. 



42. Coker, Copeia, no, 1922: 65. 43. See list, p. 416. 



44. A spiracular tentacle is neither mentioned nor pictured; probably overlooked. 



45. According to Sherborne and Woodward (Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., [7] 8, 1901: 493), the "Poissons" was published 

 April 30, 1825. 



46. See Doderlein for additional Mediterranean references not listed here. 



