1 2 O Memoir Sears Foundation for Marine Research 



a species which "has a tendency to pick out the eyes of fish which lie prone on the bot- 

 tom. "^^* Nor does the little that is known of its diet (p. 119) or of that of other mem- 

 bers of its genus (p. 109) suggest that the electric organs are likely to be of as much 

 service to them in feeding as they may be to other Electric Rays that prey on actively 

 swimming fishes (p. 102). 



Numerical Abundance. No exact information is available as to the numbers of 

 N. brasiliensis. But reports that it is taken frequently in trammel nets on the west coast 

 of Florida, plus the fact that considerable numbers are contained in the collections 

 of museums and that they have been reported with considerable frequency from one 

 place or another, suggest that the population within its year-round range is consider- 

 ably more abundant than is that of its larger relative. Torpedo nobiliana. It appears, 

 however, that few take part in the summer migration northward, for the total numbers 

 reported at Cape Lookout in years when watch was kept for them were small : only two 

 in 1909, II plus about a dozen more by fishermen in 19 10, four in 191 1, and 16 in 

 1912.1*' Also, it seems that few reach the opposite boundary of the species' range, 

 for the number of recorded specimens is only four from Argentine waters. ^^^ 



Relation to Man. The Lesser Electric Ray is of no commercial importance; in fact, 

 we have no evidence that it is brought into tropical fish markets. But a correspondent^^' 

 who has tried them on the table and who has supplied the specimens from the east 

 coast of Florida (listed, p. 112) informs us that they are excellent eating. 



Range. Inshore waters of the western Atlantic, from southern Brazil to Florida 

 and Texas; south in small numbers to northern Argentina in about Lat. 39—40° S, 

 and north to North Carolina. It is represented on the Pacific Coast of Central America, 

 Gulf of California to Panama, by a form {Narcine entemedor Jordan and Starks 1895) 

 so closely allied that it will probably prove indistinguishable when more fully studied 

 (see discussion, p. i 18). N. brasiliensis has been reported also from the Cape of Good 

 Hope, but probably not correctly.^^" 



Occurrence in the Western Atlantic. This Electric Ray has been reported from 

 localities so widely distributed,"^ and it is so well represented in the larger museums 

 of both America and Europe, that it is to be expected anywhere along the American 

 littoral, provided the type of bottom and depth be suitable, from the coast of southern 

 Brazil at about Lat. 28° S northward along the South American Coast, throughout 



156. Cox and Breder, Zoologica N. Y., 28, 1943: 47. 



157. Coles, Bull. Amer. Mus. nat. Hist., 28, 1910: 337; Gudger, Proc. bid. Soc. Wash., 26, 1913: 99. 



158. Lahille, An. Mus. nac. B.Aires, 34, 1928: 338. 159. Captain R.A.Howard, A. U. S. 



160. Reports of N. brasiliensis in South African waters appear to lead back to Dumeril's (Hist. Nat. Poiss., J, 1865: 

 515) suggestion that the Torpedo ocellata of Quoy and Gaimard (Voy. 'Uranie', Zool., 1824: 199) might be identical 

 with N. brasiliensis. But its large mouth (so described by Quoy and Gaimard) seems to locate it in the genus Torpedo. 

 In any case, the governmental marine surveys of South African waters have not taken any Narcine (von Bonde and 

 Swart, Fish. Mar. biol. Surv. S. Afr., Rep. 3 [1922], Spec. Rep 5, 1924: 14). 



161. Santos, Rio de Janeiro and general region, Sao Salvador (Bahia), Rio Parahyba, and Para in Brazil; Venezuela; 

 Colon; Yucatan; Guadeloupe, Martinique, St. Vincent, Jamaica, and Cuba among the West Indies; the Florida 

 Keys; various Florida localities along the east coast northward to New Smyrna and the St. Johns River, and along 

 the west coast to Pensacola; Corpus Christi and the offing of Aransas Bay in Texas; also listed as a member of the 

 fish fauna of Louisiana. 



