394 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



darker; tail sooty or blackish posteriorly; lower surfaces of disc and pelvlcs yellowish 

 or cream-white, or variously spotted with olive, yellow brown and white, conspicuously 

 margined (at least on some specimens) with dark sooty olive or dusky. Lower surface 

 of tail olive or brown anterior to spine, grading posteriorly into sooty or almost black. 

 Teeth a little darker than lower surface of disc on specimens seen, sometimes con- 

 siderably so. 



Relationship to Extralimital Species. H. schmardae is most closely related to H. 

 pacifica (Beebe and Tee- Van) 19411** from the Pacific Coast of Costa Rica, which it 

 resembles in shape of disc, in the quadriradiate conformation of the tubercles with 

 dichotomously branching ridges, in the distribution of these tubercles, and in the loca- 

 tion of the tail spine (or spines) far rearward on the tail. But the two forms differ suffi- 

 ciently, as tabulated below, to be classed as distinct species. 



H. schmardae H. pacifica 



Spiracle 1.7 —2 times as long as eye 3 times as long as eye 



Longest gill opening 0.75—1 times as long as eye 2 times as long as eye 



Scapular tubercles Conspicuous Inconspicuous 



Developmental Stages. Embryos of this species have not been seen. 



Size. Evidently this is one of the larger members of its family, for the tips of the 

 claspers in a male 563 mm broad still fall some 20 mm short of the posterior margins 

 of the pelvics, but the size reached at maturity has not been learned. A female about 

 four feet wide from Matanzas, Cuba, is the largest recorded. i" 



Habits. Nothing whatever is known of the habits of H. schmardae beyond what 

 applies to all the long-tailed Sting Rays. 



Relation to Man. In the vicinity of Carman, Mexico, the dried skins of this species 

 (the upper surface of disc and tail as far as the spine) are used as an abrasive, especially 

 for polishing woodwork. "^ 



Range. H. schmardae has been recorded only from: Dutch Guiana (Surinam); 

 Trinidad; the coast of Panama on the Caribbean side, including the entrance to the 

 Canal; Jamaica; the north and south coasts of Cuba; and from the Gulf of Campeche, 

 Mexico. But it is more plentiful in tropical West Atlantic waters than the paucity of 

 published records would indicate, for many have been taken in recent years near 

 Matanzas, Cuba, and we are informed that it is quite commonly caught and seen in 

 shallow places along the southern Cuban Coast and along the Cays off" the north coast. ^*' 



Synonyms and References: 



Trygon schmardae Werner, Zool. Jb., Syst. Abt. 21, 1904: 298 (descr., Jamaica); Engelhardt, Abh. bayer. Akad. 

 Wiss., Suppl. ^ (3), 1913: 103 (range). 



160. Zoologica N. Y., 26, 1941: 262. 



161. Howell-Rivero, Proc. Boston Soc. nat. Hist., 41, 1936: 49, as PastinacAus torrei. 



162. Communication from Frank J.Mather III. 



163. Personal communication from Luis Howell-Rivero (as Pastinachus torrei). 



