Fishes of the Western North Atlantic 395 



Dasybatus {Pastinachus) schmardae Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 1913: 386 (descr., from 

 Werner, 1904, Jamaica). 



Dasybatus {^Pastinachus') torrei Garman, Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., j6, 191 3: 386 (descr., cf. other 

 species; Cuba). 



Dasybatus torrei Garman, Mem. Soc. cubana Hist, nat., 2, 1916: 178 (Spanish transl. from Garman 1913). 



Dasybatus schmardae Meeic and Hildebrand, Field Mus. Publ. Zool., 75 (i), 1923: 81 (descr., color, size; 

 Toro Point and Mindi Cut, Panama Canal Zone). 



Pastinachus torrei Devincenzi, Rev. chil. Hist. Nat., 2g, 1925: 173 (listed, Cuba, by ref. to Garman, 1913); 

 Jordan, Evermann and Clark, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1928), 2, 1930: 28 (listed, W. Indies); Howell- 

 Rivero, Proc. Boston Soc. nat. Hist., j^l, 1936: 49 (size, nos., Matanzas, Cuba). 



Pastinachus schmardae Devincenzi, Rev. chil. Hist. Nat., 29, 1925: 173 (listed, Jamaica by ref. to Werner, 

 1904); Jordan, Evermann and Clark, Rep. U. S. Comm. Fish. (1928), 2, 1930: 28 (listed, W. Indies). 



Dasyatis schmardae Fowler, Proc. Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 5j, 193 1: 391 (color, Trinidad); Beebe and Tee- 

 Van, Zoologica N.Y., 26, 1941: 263 (cf. H.-pacifica [Beebe and Tee-Van] 1941); Fowler, Monogr. 

 Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 6, 1944: 456 (listed, Jamaica; Panama); Boeseman, Zool. Meded., JO (2), 

 1948: 32 (notes, pelvis, Surinam [Dutch Guiana]). 



Probable References: 



Trygon species dubia — Lesbia, No. 319, Poey, Repert. Fisico-Nat. Cuba, 2, 1868: 457 (ident. probable because 



of roughness of skin, Cuba). 

 Raja, No. 316, Poey, Enumerat. Pise. Cubens., 187 5-1 876: 205; An. Soc. esp. Hist. Nat., .^, 1876: 205 (same 



as Trygon sp. dubia, Poey 1868). 



Family GTMNURIDAE 

 Butterfly Rays 



Characters. Front of cranium straight or weakly convex. Pelvis strongly arched 

 forward but without distinct median process. Surfaces of gill arches smooth inward 

 from gill filaments. Disc much broader relatively (at least 1.6 times as broad as long) 

 and tail from cloaca relatively much shorter than in Dasyatidae (about 20-25 7o ^s 

 long as breadth of disc and shorter than body). Saw-edged tail spine (or spines) in 

 some species but not in others. Some members of family with a small dorsal fin near 

 midlength of tail. Some with a slender tentacle-like lobe on inner posterior margin of 

 each spiracle. Transverse curtain on roof of mouth smooth-edged ; no papillae on floor 

 of mouth. Skin, apart from tail spine, naked in most but described as more or less 

 rough on large specimens of G. altavela (p. 399). Characters otherwise as in Dasyatidae. 



Remarks. The Butterfly Rays are so closely allied to the dasyatid Rays that they 

 have been united commonly with the latter (and with the urolophids) in a single 

 family.! Bu(- (-j^g species in question, though few in number, resemble one another so 

 closely and they differ so widely from all the typical dasyatids in shortness of tail, 

 shape of disc, lack of papillae on the floor of the mouth, and in having the transverse 

 curtain on the roof of the mouth smooth-edged, that it seems preferable to group them 

 in a separate family. 



Size. The members of the family, when mature, range in breadth up to six or 

 seven feet and perhaps grow even larger. 



I. By Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 1913: 363), for example, and latterly by Fowler (Bull. U. S. nat. 

 Mus., 100 [jj], 1941: 396). 



