9 2 Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



few feet deep down to 50—60 fathoms, but its depth range is known to reach at least 

 130 and perhaps 300 fathoms in the Great Australian Bight. ^' 



The geographical range of the genus is known to extend from northern Scot- 

 land" and the North Sea (inward as a stray to the Skagerrak and Kattegat)*' to tropical 

 West Africa (Senegal) in the eastern Atlantic, including the Mediterranean; from 

 Nova Scotia to Cuba in the west. Torpedo is also known from: northern Argentina; 

 southern British Columbia to southern California on the Pacific Coast of North America, 

 and perhaps from Chile;*" Japan; southeastern and southern Australia and New Zea- 

 land; the Indian Ocean region in general, including the Persian Gulf and Red Sea, 

 southward to Madagascar, Natal, and the Cape of Good Hope. 



Species. One species, Torpedo mackayana Metzelaar 1919,^1 that falls within the 

 limits of the genus in other respects is set apart from all of its generic relations — for 

 that matter, from all other members of the suborder — by the presence of small papillae 

 along the margins of its pectorals, described as "partly spinous." Indeed, it is so aber- 

 rant in this respect that a separate genus may prove requisite for it when it is better 

 known. The species that remain, after the subtraction of T. mackayana., have been 

 divided by some authors into two genera or subgenera, or even into three, depending 

 on whether the margins of the spiracles are smooth or are rimmed with short ten- 

 tacular structures or papillae.*- But it is not possible to draw any sharp line even between 

 those species in which the spiracles are the most evidently papillate and those in which 

 they are perfectly smooth. The gap between them is bridged by Torpedo fuscomaculata 

 of the Indian Ocean, in which the spiracular papillae are conspicuous in young spe- 

 cimens but decrease in relative size with growth, and by T. torpedo (Linnaeus) 1758, in 

 which the papillae are represented in the young by only low knobs that dwindle with 

 growth until they are probably wholly obliterated by maturity in some specimens. 



47. McCulloch (Biol. Result. Fish. F. I. S. 'Endeavour', 5 [4], 1926: 159) reports Torpedo f aire hiUi from trawl hauls 

 made at 100-220 fathoms in Bass Strait, at 80-120 fathoms and at 130-320 fathoms in the Great Australian Bight. 



48. Sim (Vert. Fauna Dee, 1903: 274) reports (seemingly on good evidence) the capture of several Torpedo nobiliana 

 from Wick Bay and its offing, and from Moray Firth for the years 1890-1894, one specimen being 3 feet 9 inches 

 long. 



49. Lubbert and Ehrenbaum, Handb. Seefisch. Nordeuropas, 2, 1936: 317; Andersson, Fiskar och Fisk i Norden, 

 1942: 275. 



50. It is not clear from Guichenot's (Fauna Chilensis, 2, 1848: 368) brief account whether his Torpedo chilensis actually 

 belonged to Torpedo or to Discopyge. 



51. Trop. Atlant. Visschen, 1919: 197, fig. 57, Senegal; known from a single specimen only. 



52. The genus Tetronarce was proposed by GiU (Ann. N. Y. Lye, 7, 1862 : 387) for species with spiracles having smooth 

 borders, those with "dentated" spiracles being referred by him to Narcacion, which is equivalent to Torpedo. Fritsch 

 (Arch. Anat. Physiol., Leipzig [1886], Physiol. Abt., 18S6: 355) divided Torpedo into two new subgenera, Gymno- 

 torpedo for species with smooth spiracles, Fimbriotorpedo for those with papillate ones. Whitley (Rec. Aust. Mus., 

 18, 1932: 327) has instituted a new genus Notostrape for a smooth-spiracled species [Notostrape macneilli Whitley 

 1932, Australia, apparently equals Torpedo fairchildi Hutton 1872, New Zealand) without mentioning any differ- 

 ences to set it apart from the older subdivisions (generic or subgeneric) that had been proposed previously for species 

 belonging to this category. Fowler (BuU. U. S. nat. Mus., 100 [xj], 1941: 342) used the old names Torpedo for 

 the smooth-spiracled category and Tetronarce for the papillate, having suggested three subgenera earlier (Proc. 

 Acad. nat. Sci. Philad., 62, 1910: 472), Narcobatus with papillate spiracles, Tetronarce with smooth, and a new sub- 

 genus Eunarce with "spiracle fringes as rudimentary papillae." And Fraser-Brunner (Ann. Mag. nat. Hist., [2] 

 2, 1949: 943) recognizes two subgenera, Torpedo for the species with papillate spiracles, Tetronarce for those with 

 smooth ones. 



