96 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



2 b. Rear end of base of first dorsal level with rear ends of pelvic fin bases, or 

 anterior to them. 

 12a. Edges of spiracles smooth. fairchildi Hutton 1872. 



New Zealand.^' 

 12 b. Edges of spiracles with a row of papillae or knobs. 



13 a. Eyes about midway between anterior margin of snout and spir- 

 acles, or very little nearer the latter; interspace between first and 

 second dorsals only as long as distance between second dorsal and 

 caudal. panthera Olfers 1831. 



Red Sea; also reported from western Indian 

 Ocean from Gulf of Oman to Reunion, 

 Mauritius, Madagascar, Mozambique Chan- 

 nel, and the Natal Coast,** but perhaps 

 not correctly. 

 13b. Eyes much nearer to spiracles than to anterior margin of snout; 

 interspace between first and second dorsals longer than distance 

 between second dorsal and caudal. fuscomaculata Peters 1855. 



Zanzibar, Seychelles, Mauritius, 

 Madagascar, and Mozambique.*' 



Torpedo nohiliana Bonaparte 1835 



Electric Ray, Torpedo, Numbfish, Crampfish 



Figures 22, 23 



Study Material. Male, 835 mm long, taken 12-15 n^il^s off:' Plymouth, Mass., in 

 about 30 fathoms; two females, one about 1065 mm long from Provincetown, another 

 720 mm long from Woods Hole; four specimens, males and females, 800—1,245 mm 

 long, from 50—67 fathoms, 60—90 miles southwest of Gay Head, Marthas Vineyard 

 Island, Mass.; jaws of a large specimen, and an embryo about 16 cm long from Woods 

 Hole; all in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology. Also a male, 6^^ mm long, 

 with large claspers, from the North Sea (loaned by British Museum [Natural History]). 



Distinctive Characters. The broad subcircular disc, short snout anterior to the eyes, 

 perfectly smooth skin, short thick tail, two well developed dorsal fins, and broad caudal 

 fin are enough to mark T. nohiliana off at a glance from all other batoids of the western 



67. See p. 95, footnote 63. 



68. The n^mt panthera was proposed originally (Olfers, Die Gattung Torpedo, 1S31: 15, 16) as a color variety of 

 T. marmorata, and Fowler (BuU. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 [rj], 1941 : 343) has relegated it to the synonymy of that 



[species. But Riippel's illustration (Neue Wirbelt. Abyssinia, Fische, 1835: pi. 19, fig. lA) of what seems to be 

 the same Red Sea form represents it as differing from marmorata in that the first dorsal fin is whoUy anterior to 

 the rear ends of the bases of the pelvics. Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 36, 1913: 307) so describes it 

 for a specimen in the Harvard Museum of Comparative Zoology that we have re-examined. T. polleni Bleeker 

 1866 appears to be a synonym of T. panthera, as does T. zugmayeri Engelhardt 191 2, so far as the published account 

 (Zool. Anz., J9, 1912: 617) of it goes, though the latter fails to include any information as to the position of the 

 first dorsal relative to the bases of the pelvics. The specimen described by Garman (Mem. Harv. Mus. comp. Zool., 

 36, 1913: 309) as Narcacion sinus-persici (Olfers) 1831, on re-examination, also proves to be referable X.0 panthera. 



69. Characterization and range according to Fraser-Brunner (Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., [12] 2, 1949: 945). 



